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CONFEDERATION 

AND ITS LEADERS 



CANADIAN 
CONFEDERATION 

AND ITS LEADERS 



M^b. HAMMOND 



WITH PORTRAITS 



'* Confederation has put a soul Into the Dominion, has put 
a national spirit into the people of Canada 'whose lustre 
and growth are at once the hope and glory of the British 
Empire." —EARL GREY at OTTAWA, 1909. 




NEW YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



THE FATHERS OF CONFEDERATION 




H. Palmer 
Hewitt Barnard, (Secv.) 
W. A. Henry 
Charles Fisher George Coles 
W. H. Sleeves John Hamilton Grav 



MEMBERSI OF THE QUEBEC CONFERENXE, OCTOBER, 186i 



From the Painting by Robert Harris 



F. B. T. Carter 
Ambrose Shea 
E. B. Chandler 
J. C. Chapais 



R. B. Dickey 
John A. Macdonald p^fg^ Mitchell W, H. Pope J. M. Johnson 

Adams G. Archibald George Etienne Cartier Thomas H. Haviland J. H. Gray A. A. Macdonald 

Etienne Paschal Tach^ Alexander T. Gait J. Cockburn William McDougall J. McCully 



Edward Whalen 



Samuel Leonard Tillev 



Alexander Campbell Hector L. Langevin 



George Brown 



Oliver Mowat 



Thomas D'Arcy McGee 



Charles Tupper 






copyright, canada, 1917 
By McClelland, goodchild & stewart 

TORONTO 



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CONTENTS 

Members of the Quebec Conference, 1864. Frontispiece 

Preface vii 

The Fathers of Confederation ix 

Before Confederation 5 

Upper Canada — 

Sir John A. Macdonald 17 

. George Brown 45 

Sir Oliver Mowat 67 

William McDougall 83 

John Sandfield Macdonald 97 

Lower Canada — 

Sir George E. Cartier 113 

Sir Alexander T. Gait 133 

Thomas D'Arcy McGee 151 

Sir Antoine A. Dorion 165 

Christopher Dunkin 179 

New Brunswick — 

Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley 193 

Peter Mitchell 213 

Sir Albert J. Smith 227 

Nova Scotia — 

Sir Charles Tupper 243 

Joseph Howe 265 

William Annand 285 

Prince Edward Island — 

David Laird 297 

Rounding Out Confederation 313 

Bibliography 321 

Index 323 

v 



PREFACE 

ri^HE Dominion of Canada is no longer an experi- 
-*- ment. The union now so prosperous and solidified 
was adopted in the face of much opposition, and vrith- 
out directly consulting the people except in New 
Brunswick. For many years the lack of progress under 
the new constitution was accompanied by doubt and 
resentment. Conditions have changed and the party 
strife of that era has passed with the death of the last 
of the Fathers of Confederation. It seems timely, 
therefore, to examine the part played by the leaders of 
that day in the various provinces in bringing about 
the union. In this volume an attempt is made to pre- 
sent this service in proper perspective. Most of the men 
described were favorable to union, others were opposed 
and fought it until the final decision. An arbitrary 
selection for such a series may be open to criticism, but 
it will be found that each of those sketched in the 
following pages was an important factor and leader 
of opinion. 

The writer is under obligation to the contents of 
many existing volumes of history and biography, to 
official reports and documents, to surviving contempo- 
raries of the Confederation leaders, and to a host of 

vii 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

friends who have aided with counsel and material at 
their disposal. Among the latter special gratitude is 
due to Hon. W. S. Fielding, Mr. Duncan Campbell 
Scott, Senator L. G. Power, Mr. E. J. Hathaway, Mr. 
William Houston, Mr. John Lewis, Mr. John Boyd, 
Mr. C. W. Young, Mr. Reuben Macdonald, Mr. A. F. 
Macdonald, Mr. C. W. Jefferys, Miss Katherine 
Hughes, Hon. Andrew Broder, and to the staff of the 
Toronto Reference Library. 

M. O. H. 

Toronto, May, 1917. 



Vlll 



THE FATHERS OF CONFEDERATION 

Delegates to the Quebec Conference, October, 1864. 

From Canada: 

Sir Etienne P. Tache, (1795-1865), Premier, Receiver-Gen- 
eral and Minister of Militia. 
John A. Macdonald, (1815-1891), Attorney-General for 

Upper Canada. 
George E. Cartier, (1814-1873), Attorney-General for Lower 

Canada. 
George Brown, (1818-1880), President of the Executive 

Council. 
Oliver Mowat, (1820-1903), Postmaster-General. 
Alexander T. Gait, (1817-1893), Minister of Finance. 
William McDougall, (1822-1905), Provincial Secretary. 
T. D'Arcy McGee, (1825-1868), Minister of Agriculture. 
Alexander Campbell, (1821-1892), Commissioner of Crown 

Lands. 
J. C. Chapais, (1812-1885), Commissioner of Public Works. 
Hector L. Langevin, (1826-1906), Solicitor-General for 

Lower Canada. 
James Cockburn, (1819-1883), Solicitor-General for Upper 

Canada. 

From Nova Scotia: 

Charles Tupper, (1821-1915), Premier and Provincial Sec- 
retary. 

William A. Henry, (1816-1888), Attorney-General. 

R. B. Dickey, (1811-1903), Member of the Legislative 
Council. 

Jonathan McCully, (1809-1877), Member of the Legislative 
Council. 

Adams G. Archibald, (1814-1892), Member of the Legisla- 
tive Assembly. jx 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

From New Brunswick: 

Samuel Leonard Tilley, (1818-1896), Premier and Provin- 
cial Secretary. 

William H, Steeves, (1814-1873), Minister without port- 
folio. 

J. M. Johnson, (1818-1868), Attorney-General. 

Peter Mitchell, (1824-1899), Minister without portfolio. 

E. B. Chandler, (1800-1880), Member of the Legislative 

Council. 

John Hamilton Gray, (1814-1889), Member of the Legis- 
lative Assembly. 

Charles Fisher, (1808-1880), Member of the Legislative 
Assembly. 

From Prince Edward Island: 

Colonel John Hamilton Gray, (1812-1887), President of the 

Council. 
Edward Palmer, (1809-1899), Attorney-General. 
William H. Pope, (1825-1879), Colonial Secretary. 
A. A. Macdonald, (1829-1912), Member of the Legislative 

Council. 
George Coles, (1810-1875), Member of the Legislative 

Assembly. 
T. Heath Haviland, (1822-1895), Member of the Legislative 

Assembly. 
Edward Whelan, (1824-1867), Member of the Legislative 

Assembly. 

From Newfoundland: 

F. B. T. Carter, (1819-1900), Speaker of the Legislative 

Assembly. 
Ambrose Shea, (1818-1905). 



CONFEDERATION 

AND ITS LEADERS 



BEFORE CONFEDERATION 



BEFORE CONFEDERATION 



FIFTY years ago the Provinces of Upper and Lower 
Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia united 
as the Dominion of Canada under a federal system. 
Their acquaintance was slight, there were many in- 
congruous elements and there were protesting voices 
that could not soon be stilled. In joining for greater 
strength and security some local powers were naturally 
surrendered, and during the years of experiment critics 
were numerous and unsparing. 

A half century of Confederation has witnessed ex- 
pansion from ocean to ocean, and the foundations arc 
laid for a great commonwealth. The wisdom of the 
Fathers has been vindicated, an era has been closed by 
participation in a world war, and the future is faced 
with increasing confidence. Some voices call for fur- 
ther constitutional change, bringing the Imperial fami- 
ly closer together, while others ask only the continu- 
ance of the present freedom and healthy development. 

Looking over the brief cycle of the Dominion's 
history, courage seems to have been its watchword. It 
required courage to unite provinces distant and dis- 
similar, and to face the many differences which beset 
them. The same courage bridged the waste places with 
railways, carried canals over the resisting hills and 
opened new frontiers with a fresh summons to the 
world's pioneers. 

These measures followed naturally the leadership 

5 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

of the builders of Confederation. These were the 
cream of the statesmen of their day. Both parties gave 
of their best. Each man was in his prime and an ex- 
perienced public servant. During the 'forties the Im- 
perial Government loosed the irritating colonial strings 
and allowed the embryo nations to settle their own pro- 
blems. Responsible government, which followed, soon 
bred a school of public men whose expanding vision 
naturally craved a union. When party government 
came to a standstill in the early 'sixties, decisive action 
was finally quickened by the entanglements of the 
American civil war. 

Canada's evolution to Confederation had been 
gradual. From Champlain's founding of Quebec in 
1608 to the end of the French regime in 1763, Royal 
Governors, black-robed missionaries and adventurous 
fur-traders had given color, if not population, to the 
backward colony. Lord Dorchester was not long in 
charge of the ill-assorted races before he fathered the 
Quebec Act in 1774, authorizing a Council "to make 
ordinances for the peace, welfare and good govern- 
ment of the said Province." While it was declared to 
be "inexpedient" to give an Assembly, the right to the 
free exercise of their religion was guaranteed to the 
French-Canadians. 

Thus started towards self-government, the French 
reciprocated by staunch support of British rule despite 
the appeals of the revolting American colonies. The 
Revolution had another effect — in fact, the course of 
Canada was continually influenced by her neighbor. 
At the close of the war thousands of Loyalist refugees 

6 



BEFORE CONFEDERATION 

from the Atlantic States settled in the British colonies. 
Upper Canada thus began by a settlement at Kingston, 
while the migration to the St. John Valley cradled New 
Brunswick, which was detached from Nova Scotia in 
1784. The growth of Canada resulted in the Consti- 
tutional Act of 1791, which, under Lord Dorchester's 
guidance, divided Quebec into Upper and Lower Can- 
ada, each with a Legislative Council and a Legislative 
Assembly. The Upper Province expanded under im- 
migration from the British Isles, and Governor Simcoe 
laid foundations for years to come. 

Canada became involved in the Napoleonic wars 
through the anger of the United States over the search 
of neutral vessels by British warships, and in 1812 the 
Republic declared war with all the hatred of a quarrel 
between blood relations. The war was inconclusive, 
but it determined once for all Canada's adherence to the 
British flag, and has ever formed a glorious memory 
by her heroic defence of her own soil. 

Inspiring though the memories were, Canada soon 
had internal troubles, which only ended when her con- 
stitution was remade. Immigration had poured in, 
public works kept pace with development, and settle- 
ment swept ever westward through the "Queen's Bush." 
But the Executive in both Provinces became less and 
less representative of public opinion. Finally, the dis- 
content crystallized under two leaders, Louis J. Papi- 
ncau in Lower Canada and William Lyon Mackenzie 
in Upper Canada, each representing the radical senti- 
ment of his Province. The "Family Compact" was 
denounced bitterly and the inevitable clash came. The 

7 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Rebellion of 1837 was short-lived. That it took that 
form was not the wish of many, even of the insurgents, 
but it served its purpose. Lord Durham, an advanced 
English radical, was sent as a special commissioner. At 
first he favored a federation of all the British North 
American colonies, but this was opposed by the Mari- 
time Provinces. Eventually, in a report which forms 
one of Canada's great charters, he recommended Re- 
sponsible Government, — that is, government by an Ex- 
ecutive in sympathy with the majority of the Legisla- 
ture, — together with the union of the two Canadas. The 
latter was passed by the British Parliament and became 
effective in 1841 ; but Responsible Government was not 
finally won until the electoral victory of Robert Bald- 
win and L. H. Lafontaine in 1847. 

The idea of a united British North America was 
an old one, but it did not become a practical question 
until the 'fifties of last century. It recurred in a far- 
off, academic way through the years following the 
American Revolution. Federation was urged in 1791 
by Chief Justice William Smith, a Loyalist from New 
York, who suggested definite clauses for the Constitu- 
tional Act to avert another secession from the Empire. 
Lord Dorchester, his Governor, forwarded the idea to 
London, but almost eighty years passed before feder- 
ation was adopted. 

Soon after the union of the two Canadas in 1841 
George Brown voiced Upper Canada's unrest at the sta- 
tionary representation of that Province in the face of its 
surpassing growth. He campaigned vigorously in The 
Globe and on the platform for Representation by Pop- 

8 



BEFORE CONFEDERATION 

ulation and prepared Upper Canada for constitutional 
change, whatever form it might take. In 1858 Alex- 
ander T. Gait, one of Lower Canada's ablest states- 
men, gave union a place in politics by advocacy in Par- 
liament, and a few months later carried it as a policy 
into the Cartier-Macdonald Cabinet. 

Meantime the seed of union was taking root in the 
Maritime Provinces. In 1854 Premier J. W. John- 
stone carried a resolution in the Nova Scotia Legisla- 
ture declaring: 

"That a union or confederation of the British Pro- 
vinces on just principles, while calculated to perpetuate 
their connection with the parent State, will promote 
their advancement and prosperity, increase their 
strength and influence, and elevate their position." 

Dr. Charles Tupper, a rapidly rising force in 
Nova Scotia politics, lectured in favor of federation 
in 1861, and at St. John, Samuel Leonard Tilley, after- 
wards a union leader in New Brunswick, was an ap- 
proving listener. The era of railways and canals had 
dawned, and with a scientific renaissance came a poli- 
tical awakening. The American Civil War was burn- 
ing at the doors of the British provinces, and with 
the ill-feeling engendered, threatened trouble at any 
time. Internal disputes joined with external dangers, 
and after the preliminary conferences had been held, 
the Fenians on the border helped to force the issue in 
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. 

Tupper and Nova Scotia led in calling the confer- 
ence at Charlottetown in September, 1864, which open- 
ed the way to Confederation. It was primarily to dis- 

9 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

cuss a local union for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick 
and Prince Edward Island, but Canada, also eager for 
constitutional change, sent delegates, who secured a 
hearing for a larger union. The Conference at Quebec 
in the following month adopted seventy-two resolu- 
tions, which formed the basis of the British North 
America Act of 1867. It was attended by delegates 
from the Canadas, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, 
Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. 

Opposition to the Quebec scheme speedily de- 
veloped in Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. 
Early in 1865 the Legislature of Newfoundland voted 
to defer action until after the next general election, the 
colony then being under the spell of a trade boom from 
reciprocity with the United States. The union scheme 
was never ratified, and although efforts were made 
again in 1868 and in 1893 to reach an agreement, the 
Island remains to this day outside Confederation. 
Prince Edward Island soon repudiated the action of 
its delegates to the Quebec Conference and resisted all 
efforts for union until 1873. 

By the British North America Act, passed by the 
British Parliament, the new constitution for the 
Dominion of Canada was "similar in principle to that 
of the United Kingdom." In fact the name "King- 
dom of Canada" was urged by John A. Macdonald 
during the framing of the bill, but subsequently aban- 
doned. It provided for a federal system, with a general 
government over all and a legislature for each pro- 
vince. The general government has power over trade 
and commerce, military and naval services and defences, 

10 



BEFORE CONFEDERATION 

banking and other matters of a national character, 
while the provinces control education, municipal and 
merely local affairs. The eastern provinces gained an 
objective in provision for an Intercolonial Railway 
from the St. Lawrence River to Halifax, while the 
Canadas solved their deadlock by the establishment of 
local legislatures. Further clauses provided for the 
admission of other parts of British North America. 

The struggle for Confederation covered years and 
called forth the best talent of the leaders of the pro- 
vinces. Their individual services in this peaceful 
though momentous evolution are to be told in the suc- 
ceeding pages. 



11 



UPPER CANADA 

SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 

GEORGE BROWN 

SIR OLIVER MOWAT 

WILLIAM McDOUGALL 

JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD 



SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 




SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 



SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 

(1815-1891) 

MANY men brought precious gifts for the minting 
of Confederation; John A. Macdonald brought 
the supreme gift of leadership. George Brown had 
paved the way in Upper Canada by years of agitation. 
George Etienne Cartier, with undaunted courage, over- 
came the racial opposition in Lower Canada. Samuel 
Leonard Tilley persisted until New Brunswick's dis- 
trust and suspicion melted away. Charles Tupper 
battered down Nova Scotia's hostility, and broke 
Joseph Howe, the idol of the Province. Each in his 
role was indispensable, but no other alone could have 
united the strong men of the scattered colonies. That 
was the peculiar task allotted by destiny to Macdon- 
ald. Brown suspended the political and personal 
hatreds of a lifetime to become Macdonald's ally. 
Cartier, champion of the French-Canadians, who still 
imagined the slights of a conquered race, rallied to the 
rival Upper Canadian. Tilley and Tupper were Mac- 
donald's friends from the first, and, inspired by him, 
fought the union cause to victory in their own Pro- 
vinces. With the exception of Brown the alliance 
between these four local leaders was enduring. The 
coalition formed and the foundations for union laid, he 
left the Cabinet on slight pretext, and the old relations 
of antagonism were resumed. 

Macdonald was richly dowered by nature for 
duties of leadership. He possessed that rare and in- 

17 

2 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

describable quality called personal magnetism, which 
attracted men even though political opponents. He 
had an insinuating voice and manner which command- 
ed affection, down through the decades from his entry 
into law until, as an old man, his name was surrounded 
by a party halo. In one of his first cases in a law court 
the argument became so hot that he got into a fight 
with the rival counsel. The court constable, who was 
an admirer, shouted the message of his duty, "Order 
in the court," but under his breath encouraged his 
friend with the words, "Hit him, John." And so 
throughout his life he took and gave many hard blows 
in politics, but compelled a personal following even 
within the opposing party. He was not a man of elo- 
quence, but he had a ready flow of aggressive argu- 
ment, and rarely failed to unite and stimulate his party. 
In a debate in the House he often turned his back on 
the Speaker to directly address his followers, and the 
appeal was so personal that when the division bells 
rang "John A." was secure against all assaults. He had 
an uncanny memory for names and details of family 
history, which bound even a casual acquaintance to him 
for all time. 

Laying aside, therefore, for the moment, Mac- 
donald's vision and statesmanship, his human qualities 
gave him a permanent ascendancy. In his day, when 
the country was smaller and contact with the people 
more intimate, this was important. Wherever he went 
he was followed by a crowd who unblushingly address- 
ed him as "John A." They flocked to his railway 
coach, they hung about his carriage, and they invaded 

18 



SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 

his hotel rooms. This could not happen to any of his 
great contemporaries. Edward Blake, despite his great 
parli-amentary ability and his all-encompassing brain, 
was beside him a cold and austere figure. Alexander 
Mackenzie inspired confidence by his industry, his 
integrity and his platform gifts, but he had few social 
graces. Oliver Mowat was a faithful, honest public 
servant, who lived, comparatively, behind closed doors. 
George E. Cartier was a highstrung executive, with 
few moments of relaxation. Samuel Leonard Tilley, 
genial and straightforward, was encased in respectabil- 
ity. Charles Tupper was a bulldog for a hard, unpleas- 
ant party job, with a face and manner set for his task. 

John A. Macdonald lived almost his whole life in 
the country whose greatness owed much to his vision 
and statecraft. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on 
January 11, 1815. His father, Hugh Macdonald, was 
a manufacturer in a small way. Being somewhat un- 
successful, the family moved to the new world in 1 820, 
settling at Kingston, then the largest town in Upper 
Canada. It had a population of 2,500 and was adjacent 
to the Loyalist settlements lining the Bay of Quinte. 
A stage coach then ran to York (Toronto), which had 
still another rival in the then busy town of Niagara. 
Hugh Macdonald lived until 1841, and during his re- 
maining years settled at various points, including 
Adolphustown and Stone Mills, returning again to 
Kingston. His peripatetic habits gave the son glimpses 
of Canadian life in various beautiful settings, in an en- 
vironment breathing intense loyalty to the Sovereign. 

19 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

It also bred self-reliance in a boy who had only five 
years in the Kingston Grammar School as a normal edu- 
cation before he set out in the world for himself and for 
the assistance of his mother and sister. His subsequent 
achievements were striking evidence of his natural abil- 
ity, his observation and experience. The lanky form of 
Macdonald thus bore more than one point of resem- 
blance to the rail splitter Lincoln of Illinois. "He was 
the biggest boy in school. I remember how hard he 
worked in those days," said Sir Oliver Mowat in recall- 
ing their school-days in Kingston. 

Young Macdonald began his legal studies at the 
age of 15 in the office of George Mackenzie of Kingston. 
By 1836 he was called to the Bar and opened an office of 
his own. The youth joined the militia during the 
Rebellion of 1837, and for some years later was a sym- 
pathizer with the Tory "Family Compact" party rather 
than with the agitators for constitutional change. He 
entered public life as an alderman in Kingston in 1843, 
and the following year was elected to the Assembly. 
It is a curious coincidence that at his first election he 
declared his "firm belief that the prosperity of Canada 
depends upon its permanent connection with the 
mother country," and that in his last campaign, in 
1891, he gave his party the rallying cry, "A British 
subject I was born — a British subject I will die." 

It was not long before he became prominent in his 
party, and in March, 1847, he accepted the invitation 
of Prime Minister W. H. Draper to enter the Cabinet, 
but went out of office a few months later on the defeat 
of the Government. He joined in the fight in 1849 

20 



SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 

against the Rebellion Losses Bill, which so roused 
Montreal that the Parliament Buildings were burned 
and Lord Elgin insulted by the angry mob. The mani- 
festo praying for annexation to the United States fol- 
lowed, but Macdonald refused to be stampeded into 
signing it. The Baldwin-Lafontaine Government, 
which had inaugurated responsible government, was 
nearing its end and retired in 1851. The Hincks- 
Morin Government ruled until 1854, when a coalition 
was formed which, largely through Macdonald's influ- 
ence, agreed to abolish seigniorial tenure in Lower 
Canada and to secularize the clergy reserves in Upper 
Canada, two reforms which had been sought by pro- 
gressive men for many years. By the next year Mac- 
donald and George E. Cartier were the real if not the 
nominal rulers, and their power lasted with few breaks 
until 1873. Other men, like Sir Allan MacNab and 
Sir E. P. Tache, held the Premiership for intervals, 
but Macdonald and Cartier were the master minds. 

Now began in earnest the long fight between Mac- 
donald and Brown, which in a measure hastened Con- 
federation, and yet which had to end in a truce before 
Confederation was possible. Macdonald and Cartier 
were in a hard-and-fast alliance, and the former would 
do nothing to offend Lower Canada. Brown, on the 
other hand, conducted a bitter campaign against the 
Lower Province and agitated for increased representa- 
tion for Upper Canada, whose growth was outstripping 
the other. Macdonald then, as ever after, upheld the 
French and the Roman Catholics, depending on other 
means for Protestant support. 

21 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

On E. P. Tache's retirement in 1857 Macdonald 
became Premier, and in the ensuing election the Re- 
formers, led by Brown, advocated non-sectarian schools 
and representation by population. A defeat on a mo- 
tion opposing Ottawa as the permanent capital led the 
Government to resign, but after two days in office their 
successors, the Brown-Dorion Cabinet, also resigned 
and the readjusted Cartier-Macdonald Government 
took the reins. 

The country was now approaching its worst state 
of political backwater. There was neither safe major- 
ity nor stability for either party. Added to party 
warfare were inter-provincial and racial jealousies. 
Brown was insistent in his demand for the rights of 
Upper Canada, in view of her more rapidly growing 
population, and Cartier as strongly insisted on the 
bond of equal representation as laid down in the 
Union Act. The United Provinces drifted rapidly 
towards chaos and deadlock. In three years prior 
to the coalition of 1864 four Cabinets resigned 
and there were two general elections. Administrations 
held office as by a thread; partisanship and personali- 
ties clouded reason and prevented progress. In turn, 
the Cartier-Macdonald, the Sandfield Macdonald- 
Sicotte, the Sandfield Macdonald-Dorion and the 
Tache-Macdonald Cabinets were formed and went 
under. 

Though Canada was torn by party strife and the 
Maritime Provinces were looking for relief by a union 
of their own, events were shaping for a larger end 
than most men considered possible. George Brown's 

22 



SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 

special committee reported on June 14, 1864, that "a 
strong feeling was found to exist among the members 
of the committee in favor of changes in the direction 
of a federative system, applying either to Canada alone 
or to the whole of the British North American pro- 
vinces." The events of this and succeeding days reflect 
the chaotic and changing state of the times. John A. 
Macdonald opposed the report submitted by Brown's 
committee, though in 1861 he had given it as his opin- 
ion that in "a union of all the British North American 
provinces would be found the remedy for the evils of 
which Mr. Brown and his friends from Upper Canada 
complained."* Before the end of June, 1864, Macdon- 
ald was fighting in the coalition negotiations for the 
larger union and Brown was striving to confine the 
scheme to the two Canadas. 

The Tache-Macdonald Cabinet was defeated on 
June 14, and on all sides it was recognized that dead- 
lock had come and only a daring course could save 
the situation. On the following morning George 
Brown spoke to several supporters of the administra- 
tion, "urging that the present crisis should be utilized 
in settling forever the constitutional difficulties between 
Upper and Lower Canada and assuring them that he 
was prepared to co-operate with the existing or any 
other administration that would deal with the question 
promptly and firmly." 

Alexander Morris and J. H. Pope carried the 
message to Macdonald and Gait, and on Thursday 

*Sir John A. Macdonald: A Memoir, by Joseph Pope, (London: 
Edward Arnold), Vol. I, P. 260. 

23 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

afternoon the House had the spectacle, before the 
Speaker took the chair, of the two bitter rivals, Brown 
and Macdonald, in the centre of the room in earnest 
converse. Negotiations continued for several days, re- 
sulting in an agreement to form a coalition, to include 
three Upper Canada Reformers, one of whom must be 
Brown himself, as a guarantee for the adhesion of his 
friends. 

Brown's view during the negotiations was that 
union of all the Provinces "ought to come and would 
come about ere long; but it had yet to be thoroughly 
considered by the people, and even were this otherwise 
there were so many parties to be consulted that its adop- 
tion was uncertain and remote." 

Macdonald and Brown threw themselves with 
vigor into the work of the new alliance. News of a 
conference at Charlottetown,* at which Nova Scotia, 
New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island were to 
consider a Maritime Union, reached Quebec, and an 
order in Council was passed on August 29 permitting 
participation in that meeting, and after a telegram had 
been sent a party of eight Canadian Ministers left by 
the government steamer Queen Victoria for the Island 
capital. Looking at it now, this course of action 
appears exceedingly daring, but the Charlottetown 

*The delegates to the Charlottetown Conference were: — From 
Nova Scotia: Charles Tupper, William A. Henry, Robert B. Dickey, 
Jonathan McCully, Adams G. Archibald. From New Brunswick: Samuel 
Leonard Tilley, John M. Johnson, John Hamilton Gray, Edward B. 
Chandler, W. H. Steeves. From Prince Edward Island: Col. John 
Hamilton Gray, Edward Palmer, W. H. Pope, George Coles, A. A. Mac- 
donald. From Canada: George Brown, John A. Macdonald, Alexander 
T. Gait, George E. Cartier, Hector L. Langevin, William McDougall, 
T. D'Arcy McGee and Alexander Campbell. 

24 



SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 

conferees graciously suspended action until the Can- 
adian party arrived, when they opened their doors to 
hear the visitors' views. 

There is a touch of irony about the Charlottetown 
Conference. It was called by the three Maritime Pro- 
vinces to consider a union of their own. Canada sent 
its delegates on chance and uninvited, as Sir John 
Macdonald afterwards said. They were captains 
adventurous, sailing uncharted political seas in search 
of a new Canada. The meeting was held in the capi- 
tal of the Province that was first to withdraw from the 
scheme after the Quebec Conference. But on the sur- 
face all was smooth sailing. Governor George Dundas 
of the Island welcomed the visitors, the meetings were 
held in the Provincial Building, which still stands, and, 
according to a chronicler of the day, "the delegates 
enjoyed the hospitalities of the town." The meetings 
were of the most secret character, and no one outside 
had the least comprehension of the far-reaching nego- 
tiations that were proceeding. Mr. Gait and other 
Canadians made such a favorable impression on the 
easterners that a Maritime Union was declared imprac- 
ticable, and it was decided to continue the deliberations 
at Quebec in October. Speeches made en route at 
Halifax, St. John and other points lifted the veil some- 
what, and in a few weeks the movement was widely 
known, though its details were as yet carefully guarded. 

At a banquet at Charlottetown Col. John Ham- 
ilton Gray, Premier of the Island and Chairman of the 
Conference, said he "sincerely and profoundly be- 
lieved that this visit would be productive of much good 

25 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

and serve as a happy harbinger of such a union of sen- 
timent and interests among the three and a half millions 
of free men who now inhabit British America as 
neither time or change can forever destroy." 

This felicitous sentiment brought suitable response 
from John A. Macdonald, who thought the conven- 
tion would lead to the formation and establishment 
of a union which would enhance materially the indi- 
vidual and collective prosperity of the Provinces, and 
give them national prowess and strength which would 
make them "at least the fourth nation on the face of the 
globe." 

It appears from the above, and from Macdonald's 
speech at Halifax a few days later, that his views and 
his optimism for the union were rapidly evolving and 
developing. At the Halifax banquet on September 12 
he said: 

"The question of colonial union is one of such 
magnitude that it dwarfs every other question on this 
portion of the continent. It absorbs every idea as far 
as I am concerned. For twenty long years I have 
been dragging myself through the dreary waste of 
colonial politics. I thought there was no end, nothing 
worthy of ambition, but now I see something which 
is well worthy of all I have suffered in the cause of my 
little country. This question has now assumed a posi- 
tion that demands and commands the attention of all 
the colonies of British America. There may be ob- 
structions, local prejudices may arise, disputes may 
occur, local jealousies may intervene, but it matters 
not — the wheel is now revolving and we are only the 

26 



SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 

fly on the wheel ; we cannot delay it — the union of the 
colonies of British America under the Sovereign is a 
fixed fact." 

Macdonald pointed to the gallant defence then 
being made by the Southern republic of four millions, 
and declared that perhaps in ten years a united Canada 
would have eight millions, able to defend their country 
against all comers. Already he appealed for a strong 
central government for the new union and declared : 

"Then we shall have a great step in advance of the 
American Republic. It can only attain that object — 
a vigorous general government — we shall not have New 
Brunswickers, nor Nova Scotians, nor Canadians, but 
British Americans under the sway of the British Sover- 
eign. ... I hope that we will be enabled to work 
out a constitution that will have a strong central govern- 
ment, able to offer a powerful resistance to any foe 
whatever, and at the same time will preserve for each 
Province its own identity, and will protect every local 
ambition." 

After sowing the seed of union — but, alas, in stony 
ground at that time — in Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 
wick, the delegates, proceeding leisurely, made their 
way up the majestic St. Lawrence, whose autumn-tint- 
ed shores were a continuous stimulant for the avid tra- 
vellers, to Quebec, then the capital of United Canada. 

The occasion and setting of the Quebec Conference 
were worthy of the event. The cradle of New France, 
where Champlain had set up the first white man's 
habitation, in 1608, in what is now Canada, became the 

27 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

base of the great Dominion. The Conference met in 
the Parliament Building near the Grand Battery, over- 
looking the St. Lawrence and the Beauport shore, 
the scene of the first settlements of a great Dominion. 
The guardian citadel towered above, and a little 
beyond lay the plains of Abraham where Wolfe wrested 
an empire from the declining France of that day. On 
the site of the Parliament Building once stood the 
Bishop's Palace, the home of Bishop Laval, and in its 
chapel met the first Parliament of Canada in 1792, 
called by Lord Dorchester after the passage of the Con- 
stitutional Act. There still lives in Quebec Mr. P. B. 
Casgrain, aged 90, who in his youth danced with a 
chaperone who as a debutante had danced with Lord 
Dorchester at the opening ball in the old building. 
Thus two lives have spanned and touched 125 fruitful 
years of Canadian history. 

It fell to the veteran Premier of Canada, Sir E. P. 
Tache, to preside over the Quebec Conference, which 
opened on October 10. Sir Etienne was a respected 
and experienced statesman, but he was now 69 years 
old and was past his prime as a political force. His 
selection was a compliment to his race, not without sig- 
nificance. John A. Macdonald was a vital influence 
in shaping the proceedings. He was now almost SO 
years old, and at the height of his powers. He knew 
when to "take occasion by the hand," and had thrown 
all his ardor into the cause of union. He had quietly 
made friends with the Maritime leaders, a circum- 
stance of much value later on. 

Macdonald moved, on the second day, the main 

28 



SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 

affirmative resolution of the Conference, which was 
seconded by Tilley. This was to the effect that ''the 
best interests and present and future prosperity of Bri- 
tish North America will be promoted by a federal union 
under the Crown of Great Britain, provided such union 
can be effected on principles just to the several Pro- 



vinces." 



Speaking to this motion Macdonald said the time 
for union had arrived, and if the opportunity were let 
slip the scheme might be abandoned in despair. "Can- 
ada," he said, as reported in Pope's Memoir, "cannot 
remain as she is at present, and if we come to no de- 
cision here, we Canadians must address ourselves to 
the alternative and reconstruct our government. Once 
driven to that, it will be too late for a general federa- 
tion. We cannot, having brought our people to accept 
a Canadian federation, propose to them the question of 
a larger union." He remarked that in England feder- 
ation would be considered as showing a desire for in- 
dependence, and maintained that the colonial question 
had never been fairly represented to the people of 
England. 

"If organized as a confederacy, our increased 
importance would soon become manifest," he went on. 
"Our present isolated and defenceless position is no 
doubt a serious embarrassment to England. If it were 
not for the weakness of Canada, Great Britain 
might have joined France in acknowledging the 
Southern Confederacy. We must therefore become 
important, not only to England but in the eyes of 
foreign states, and especially of the United States, 

29 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

who have found it impossible to conquer four millions 
of Southern whites. Our united population would 
reach that number. For the sake of securing peace to 
ourselves and our posterity, we must make ourselves 
powerful. The great security for peace is to convince 
the world of our strength by being united." 

Macdonald then laid down his beliefs in centrali- 
zation of power, a principle which brought him into 
conflict with Oliver Mowat later on. "In framing the 
constitution," he said, "care should be taken to avoid 
the mistakes and weaknesses of the United States sys- 
tem, the primary error of which was the reservation to 
the different states of all powers not delegated to the 
general government. We must reserve this process 
by establishing a strong central government to which 
shall belong all powers not specially conferred on the 
provinces. Canada, in my opinion, is better off as she 
stands than she would be as a member of a confederacy 
composed of five sovereign states, which would be the 
result if the powers of the local governments were not 
defined. A strong central government is indispensable 
to the success of the experiment we are trying. Under 
it we shall be able to work out a system having for its 
basis constitutional liberty as opposed to democratic 
license." 

With the spectacle of a rent and bleeding republic 
before them, with the possible menace of its vast mili- 
tary machine, once released from its deadly duties, the 
Conference proceeded rapidly to an agreement on the 
essentials of union. John A. Macdonald's view pre- 
vailed in regard to reserving the unallotted powers to 

30 



SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 

the central government. An overwhelming majority 
favored a nominative Upper House, while provision 
was made for the admission of the great unknown 
Northwest Territories and British Columbia "on such 
terms as might be deemed equitable or agreed upon 
when they were admitted or applied for admission into 
the contemplated union." 

The financial question caused much vexation, be- 
cause the systems in Canada and the Maritime Pro- 
vinces differed so widely. The former had local gov- 
ernment and local taxation, while in the latter there 
was no such thing and the Provincial Government was 
the source of all public wealth and benefactions. When 
the effort to reach an agreement was all but abandoned 
a sub-committee of Finance Ministers reached a basis 
upon which all subsequently came together, resulting 
in the federal subsidy to the provinces according to 
population. 

The memorable Quebec Conference closed on 
October 28, and the delegates travelled in a body to 
Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston, Toronto, Niagara Falls 
and intervening points, shedding light as they went, 
encouraging support in the west but causing misgivings 
in the east. The Conference had been purely unofficial, 
and the delegates from each province returned to se- 
cure endorsation of the proposals. 

Canada's Ministers faced Parliament early in 1865 
and the stage was set for the greatest debate in the his- 
tory of the country. Appreciating its importance, the 
Government arranged for a full report of it, which 
fortunately is available to posterity in a volume of up- 

31 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

wards of 1,000 pages. Parliament opened in old Que- 
bec on January 19, and early in February the Quebec 
resolutions were up for debate. Sir E. P. Tache moved 
them in the Legislative Council and John A. Macdon- 
ald in the Assembly. Attorney-General Macdonald's 
speech was an exposition of the scheme in general 
terms; more detailed figures and arguments were left 
for succeeding speakers. Macdonald was able to say 
that the Quebec resolutions had met with general, if 
not universal, approbation in Canada. The subject was 
not a new one, he declared, but had attracted attention 
of statesmen and politicians for years. It had first been 
pressed on the attention of the Legislature by Mr. Gait 
some years before in an elaborate speech, but had not 
been taken up by any party as a branch of its policy 
until the formation of the Cartier-Macdonald Govern- 
ment a few months later in 1858. The deadlock in the 
United Provinces had reached its climax the previous 
year (1864), with "a danger of impending anarchy," 
and a succession of governments, weak in numbers, in 
force and in power of doing good. The coalition gov- 
ernment was formed, though the gentlemen composing 
it had been for many years engaged in political hostil- 
ities to such an extent that it affected their social rela- 
tions. But the crisis was great, the danger imminent, 
and they laid aside their personal feelings to reach a 
conclusion satisfactory to the country in general. 

"The very mention of the scheme," said Mr. Mac- 
donald, whose speech was marked by plain reasoning 
and devoid of eloquence in the accepted sense of the 
word, "is fitted to bring with it its own approbation. 

32 



SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 

Supposing that in the spring of the year 1865 half a 
million people were coming from the United Kingdom 
to make Canada their home, although they brought 
only their strong arms and willing hearts ; though they 
brought neither skill nor experience nor wealth, would 
we not receive them with open arms and hail their pre- 
sence in Canada as an important addition to our 
strength? But when by the proposed union we not only 
get nearly a million of people to join us — when they 
contribute not only their numbers, their physical 
strength and their desire to benefit their position, but 
when we know that they consist of old-established com- 
munities having a large amount of realized wealth — 
composed of people possessed of skill, education, and 
experience in the ways of the new world — people who 
are as much Canadians, I may say, as we are — people 
who are imbued with the same feeling of loyalty to 
the Queen and the same desire for the continuance of 
the connection with the mother country as we are, and 
at the same time have a like feeling of ardent attach- 
ment for this, our common country, for which they 
and we would alike fight and shed our blood if neces- 
sary. When all this is considered, argument is needless 
to prove the advantage of such a union." 

Mr. Macdonald explained the main features of 
the proposed constitution, the differences of opinion 
that arose, and towards the end of his speech made this 
prophetic utterance: 

"The colonies are now in a transition state. Gra- 
dually a different colonial system is being developed, 
and it will become year by year less a case of depend- 

33 

3 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

ence on our part and of overruling protection on the 
part of the mother country, and more a case of healthy 
and gradual alliance. Instead of looking upon us as 
a small dependent colony, England will have in us a 
friendly nation — a subordinate but still a powerful 
people — to stand by her in North America in peace or 
in war." 

The debate was rudely interrupted a month later 
by the news that the pro-Confederation Government in 
New Brunswick had been defeated, thus giving the 
scheme a decided set-back at the outset. Macdonald 
took a bold stand and declared to the Canadian House 
that the Government, "instead of thinking it a reason 
for altering their course, regard it as an additional 
reason for prompt and vigorous action." 

By March 11 the resolutions were adopted in the 
Assembly by 91 to 33 and in the Legislative Council 
by 45 to 15. 

For more than a year thereafter the union cause 
lay in the balance. Newfoundland and Prince Edward 
Island had definitely renounced the Quebec scheme for 
the time. The battle was yet to be won in New Bruns- 
wick and Nova Scotia, but by June, 1866, the former 
had voted "yes" and the latter was committed to at 
least further negotiation in London. Lord Monck, 
Governor-General of Canada, became impatient, and 
in a letter of admonition to Macdonald threatened to 
resign, but Macdonald somewhat tartly asked him "to 
leave something to my Canadian Parliamentary experi- 
ence." Progress was further delayed by the Fenian 

34 



SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 

raid into Canada, and it was late autumn before the 
Canadian delegates left to join those from the Mari- 
time Provinces in London. The patience of the latter 
was sorely tried, for they had waited in England for 
several months. The British North America Act, 
founded on the Quebec resolutions, was framed by the 
delegates at a conference in London, lasting from De- 
cember 4 .to 24, at which, according to Lord Blatch- 
ford, Macdonald was "the ruling genius and spokes- 
man." The bill was passed as drafted by the Imper- 
ial Parliament, and received assent on March 29, 1867, 
becoming operative on July 1, following. During his 
stay in London Macdonald's second marriage took 
place, his bride being Miss Bernard, daughter of Hon. 
Thomas J. Bernard of the Jamaica Privy Council. 
Baroness Macdonald still (1917) survives. 

Macdonald's conspicuous part in the achievement 
of Confederation, as well as his experience and know- 
ledge of conditions, marked him as the natural choice 
for first Premier of the Dominion. He retained the 
coalition idea in his first Confederation Cabinet, though 
the diverse elements caused him no end of irritation. 
In the general elections that autumn he swept all the 
Provinces excepting Nova Scotia, which remained in 
a state of smouldering rebellion until the next election 
in 1872. An armistice was arranged in 1868 when Sir 
John Macdonald — who had been knighted at Confed- 
eration — undertook a delicate mission to Halifax, and 
with the offer of "better terms," moved Joseph Howe 
to his Cabinet and modified the discontent. 



35 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Peace in the East was followed by inevitable ex- 
pansion in the West. The rights of the Hudson's Bay 
Company over the Northwest Territory were pur- 
chased and the Province of Manitoba founded in 1870. 
British Columbia was equally necessary to give the 
Dominion a frontage on the Pacific, where a harassing 
boundary dispute was causing uneasiness. Terms, in- 
volving the construction of a railway from Canada to 
the coast, were agreed upon, and the Pacific Province 
entered the union in the summer of 1871. In the same 
year Macdonald took part in framing the Washington 
Treaty, for the settlement of disputes arising out of the 
Civil War, between Britain and Canada on the one 
hand and the United States on the other. The incident 
was an indication of the growing power of the Domin- 
ion in the councils of the Motherland. 

The coalition government which began in June, 
1864, with such a noble object ended suddenly in De- 
cember, 1865, so far as George Brown was concerned, 
by his abrupt retirement. The ostensible cause was a 
difference of opinion as to the method of conducting 
the reciprocity negotiations with the United States. It 
was more likely the explosion of a condition, due to 
incompatibility. The two men were too headstrong to 
pull together in harness. Brown was not addicted to 
compromise and Macdonald was undoubtedly a jealous 
guardian of his own sway as leader. It is to the credit 
of both that the breach did not endanger Confedera- 
tion, to which Brown continued to give his loyal sup- 
port. But the pleasant relations were ended and the 
old enmitv was resumed. Years afterwards Macdon- 

36 



SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 

aid described their attitude during and after coalition 
in the following words : 

"We acted together, dined at public places to- 
gether, played euchre in crossing the Atlantic, and went 
into society in England together; and yet on the day 
after he resigned we resumed our old positions and 
ceased to speak."* 

That Nemesis which pursues all governments and 
sooner or later brings them down overtook the Mac-, 
donald Government in 1873. Like a thunderbolt, one 
spring day, Lucius Seth Huntington, Liberal member 
for Shefiford, rose in Parliament and charged that the 
Government, in consideration of large sums of money 
supplied for election purposes, had corruptly granted 
to Sir Hugh Allan and his associates a charter for the 
building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He asked 
for a committee of seven members to investigate, but 
the Government on a vote at once defeated this by 107 
to 76. A few days later Macdonald carried a resolu- 
tion for a committee of five. This body, however, ow- 
ing to a technicality, never made an inquiry and was 
succeeded by a commission of three Judges. Mean- 
time the country was rent asunder by the charges of 
the Liberals and the denials of the Ministerialists. 
Party feeling was intense, but the accusers made head- 
way through the purloining and publication of some 
confidential documents. Macdonald's own name was 
freely connected with the negotiations with Allan, 
while Cartier's reputation suffered even more severely. 

*Sir John A. Macdonald : A Memoir, by Joseph Pope, Vol. I, P. 265. 

37 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

It was plain that the Government was losing ground. 
Sir John, in a lengthy explanation to the Governor- 
General, the Earl of Dufferin, contended that two com- 
panies had wanted the charter, one in Ontario and one 
in Quebec, that the Government had told them it could 
only go to an amalgamated company, that notwithstand- 
ing this Sir Hugh Allan had subscribed to the party 
fund, although he could gain nothing thereby. 

Writing a cheery letter to Cartier, who was ill in 
England, a week after the charges were made, Sir John 
said: "The imprudence of Sir Hugh in this whole 
matter has amounted almost to insanity. His language 
has been as wild as his letters, and between you and me 
the examination must result greatly to his discredit." 

After the commission had closed its inquiry, Par- 
liament met on October 23 and immediately plunged 
into a bitter debate on the revelations. Sir John called 
his friends to speak in the defence, but the party's ranks 
were thinned by desertion, and disaster was seen to lie 
ahead. The Premier made a four-hour speech on the 
afternoon of November 3 and called to his aid the 
familiar human appeals which had never before failed 
to stifle discontent or rouse enthusiasm. 

"I throw myself upon this House, I throw myself 
upon this country, I throw myself upon posterity," 
he said, grandiosely; "and I believe and I know that 
notwithstanding the many failings in my life I shall 
have the voice of this country and this House rallying 
round me. And, sir, if I am mistaken in that, I can 
confidently appeal to a higher court — to the court of 
my conscience and to the court of posterity." 

38 



SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 

It was the swan song of the Macdonald regime of 
that day. The forces of national indignation concen- 
trated in the succeeding speeches of Donald A. Smith 
and David Laird, and the Government resigned the 
next day. Alexander Mackenzie formed a Cabinet, 
and Sir John Macdonald packed up and moved to 
Toronto to practice law during his five years in Oppo- 
sition. By the elections which followed his defeat 
Macdonald was left with a party of only 45 in a House 
of 206 members. 

Defeated and crestfallen, people said Macdonald's 
day of power was over. But they did not know their 
man. He recovered his buoyancy, and his party pro- 
fited by external conditions. After several years of 
prosperity, a severe depression overtook the United 
States and Canada about 1873, a condition greatly to 
the disadvantage of whatever government might be in 
power. Alexander Mackenzie, as upright and zealous 
a Premier as ever served a country, was timid and 
devoid of the arts making for popularity. By 1876 Sir 
John Macdonald determined, after much pressure from 
Tupper and others of his own party, to adopt the 
"National Policy." This form of protection, which 
he presented in a resolution on March 10 of that year, 
called for increased protection for mining, manufac- 
turing and agricultural interests. During the succeed- 
ing two summers, with such lieutenants as Tupper and 
Tilley, he addressed a series of "political picnics." 
Aided by the hard times prevailing, the cause gained 
momentum and swept Macdonald back to power in 
September, 1878, where he remained until his death, 

39 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

thirteen years later. His second term in office was 
marked by the construction of the Canadian Pacific 
Railway, by the building of canals, and various public 
works, and by many items of general legislation of a 
constructive character. 

Sir John Macdonald was in harness to the very 
end. Early in 1891 Parliament was dissolved, and the 
party, though weakening under the burden of its 
lengthy record, passed successfully through another 
election aided by the magic of its leader. Sir John de- 
nounced what he termed the anti-British trend of the 
reciprocity policy of the Liberals, which had been 
adopted as a remedy for the wearisome trade depression 
which then existed. He was now an old and feeble man, 
whose asset was his record and his personality rather 
than any future work he might do. Opening his cam- 
paign at Toronto on February 17, he referred to him- 
self as "the aged leader, and perhaps the weak and 
inefficient leader (Cries of 'No,' 'No,'), but the honest 
and well-intentioned leader." He warned the people 
against the policy which if adopted "would lead to 
absorption into the United States," though his own Gov- 
ernment had sought a renewal of the reciprocity treaty 
— a more limited measure, it is true — in 1866. "I be- 
lieve," he said, "that this election, which is the great 
crisis on which so much depends, will show the Ameri- 
cans that we prize our country as much as they do, that 
we would fight for our existence as they would." 

Sir John won his last fight, but the lease of power 
given on March 5 was but a few weeks old when the 

40 



SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 

country heard with a shock of his fatal illness. Though 
he was 76, his youthful spirits had seemed to suggest a 
draft at the mythical wells of Ponce de Leon. He was 
taken ill on May 22. For days the people of the Domin- 
ion waited and read the bulletins from Earnscliffe, the 
family residence by the banks of the Ottawa. When 
the end came on June 6, there was national mourning, 
and ^ memorable state funeral with burial at Kingston, 
amid the scenes of his youth in his adopted country. 

"I think it can be asserted," said Wilfrid Laurier, 
then Opposition leader, speaking in the House, "that 
for the supreme art of governing men Sir John Mac- 
donald was gifted as few men in any land or in any 
age were gifted — gifted with the highest of all qualities, 
qualities which would have made him famous wherever 
exercised, and which would have shown all the more 
conspicuously the larger the theatre." 

"From the grave of him who above all was the 
Father of Confederation," Laurier concluded, "let not 
grief be barren grief, but let grief be coupled with 
the resolution, the determination that the work in which 
the Liberals and Conservatives, in which Brown and 
Macdonald united, shall not perish, but that united, 
though Canada may be deprived of the services of her 
greatest men, yet Canada shall and will live." 

Lord Rosebery, a year later, unveiling a bust of 
Macdonald in St. Paul's Cathedral, said: 

"We know nothing of party politics in Canada 
on this occasion. We recognize only this, that Sir 
John Macdonald had grasped a central idea that the 
British Empire is the greatest secular agency for good 

41 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

now known to mankind ; that was the secret of his suc- 
cess, and that he determined to die under it and strove 
that Canada should live under it." 

When "John A." died it was more than the loss 
of a statesman; it was the loss of a man as well. His 
very frailties, so freely admitted by himself, endeared 
him to many. His reply to an attack for intemperance 
was that he was sure his audience "would any day pre- 
fer John A. drunk to George Brown sober." He had 
made his way by his own merits and he lived and died 
a poor man. He was simple but distinctive in dress, 
His summer wear was a grey top hat, grey Prince 
Albert coat and grey trousers, with the inevitable red 
necktie. He was full of life, good humor, and enliven- 
ed many a dry debate by a spontaneous joke. 

Sir John was no saint and did not pretend to be. 
He was fond of power and kept the old idea that a 
politician's chief end in life was to hold ofBce. He 
used the means at hand to attain it, without scruples, 
and made no hypocritical declarations. In his day 
he was supreme, and as his life recedes his stature en- 
larges. He was slow to adopt a policy, but resolute to 
execute it. He followed others' lead in Confedera- 
tion and in Protection, but no other could have carried 
them without his adroitness and tenacity. He extended 
the Dominion across the continent and then devoted 
his life to laying foundations for the commonwealth 
that becomes more solid as each year passes. 



42 



GEORGE BROWN 




GEORGE BROWN 



GEORGE BROWN 

(1818-1880) 

EARLY in 1864 when party government in Canada 
had collapsed and leaders were casting about for 
a solution, George Brown secured the appointment by 
the House of Assembly of a committee of nineteen 
members to consider the difficulties connected with the 
government of Canada. When the committee met con- 
siderable time was consumed in banter and in debat- 
ing whether their meetings should be open or private. 
At last, when they had decided on the latter course, 
Brown walked to the door, locked it and put the key 
in his pocket. Then he said, to the astonishment of 
John A. Macdonald, George E. Cartier and others, 
''Now, you must talk about this matter, as you cannot 
leave this room without coming to me." 

The incident, which Brown related years after- 
ward to a friend, is illustrative of his own dominating, 
downright character. He was as earnest as a crusader, 
as courageous as a knight at arms, and as unyielding 
as an oak. For thirty years he was a towering figure 
in Canadian life. He was a powerful and tireless 
campaigner, holding his audiences far into the night 
with long speeches replete with chastisement of his 
opponents. He was a fearless editor who filled the 
columns of The Globe with high-tensioned opinions 
on every phase of politics. He was a constructive states- 
man who was brave enough to forego his most precious 
possession — party solidarity — and join a coalition gov- 
ernment to remove the first obstacle to Confederation. 

45 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

George Brown and John A. Macdonald were po- 
litical foes for more than twenty years. Their lives par- 
alleled and they constantly crossed swords. Each was 
the idol of his party, though Brown's unbending quali- 
ties frequently caused trouble with men of his own side. 
Macdonald, — human, winning and not less powerful, 
— was always in favor with his own party. The two 
were forever in each other's light and they were per- 
sonal as well as political enemies. Brown distrusted 
Macdonald for his sagacity and perfection of state- 
craft. Macdonald disliked the serious, bold, masterful 
Brown, whose editorial attacks were untempered and 
unrelenting. Macdonald was social and convivial by 
nature. Brown was stern and seriously attentive in his 
public duties. For years they were not on speaking 
terms; then for public reasons they joined in the coali- 
tion of 1864, yet a year later when Brown left the 
Cabinet their intercourse entirely ceased. In 1867. 
Brown, addressing the Liberal convention in Toronto 
when William McDougall and W. P. Rowland were 
read out of the party for remaining in the Macdonald 
Cabinet, declared his feelings towards Sir John Mac- 
donald by saying: 

"If, sir, there is any large number of men in this 
assembly who will record their votes this night in favor 
of the degradation of the public men of that party 
(the Liberal) by joining a coalition, I neither want to 
be a leader nor a humble member of that party. If 
that is the reward you intend to give us all for our 
services I scorn connection with you. Go into the same 
government with Mr. John A. Macdonald (Cries of 

46 



GEORGE BROWN 

*Never'). Sir, I understood what degradation it was 
to be compelled to adopt that step by the necessities of 
the case, by the feeling that the interests of my country 
were at stake, which alone induced me ever to put my 
foot into that government; and glad was I when I got 
out of it." 

These sentiments, making allowance for the ex- 
hilaration of a party convention, reflect the sacrifice 
which Brown suffered for Confederation. It is difficult 
in these days of temperate politics to appreciate the 
degree of his sense of humiliation. Macdonald was his 
chief adversary in life, the man whom tens of thousands 
of Canadians had heard him denounce in his campaign 
utterances, and who was daily the victim of his editor- 
ial lashings. 

Yet on almost a day's notice Brown, realizing the 
futility of further fighting along party lines, joined 
his opponent and made Confederation a possibility. 
Though Macdonald had many occasions to resent the 
attacks of Brown and The Globe, he was generous 
enough in 1866 in a speech at Hamilton to pay this tri- 
bute to Brown's service: 

"An allusion has been made to Mr. Brown, and it 
may perhaps be well for me to say that, whatever may 
be the personal differences which may exist between 
that gentleman and myself, I believe he is a sincere 
well-wisher and friend of Confederation. I honestly 
and truly believe him to be so, and it would be ex- 
ceedingly wrong and dishonest in me from personal 
motives to say anything to the contrary." 

On the other hand, Macdonald's personal feelings 

47 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

towards Brown were vigorously expressed in a letter 
to his mother in 1856, in which he said: 

"I am carrying on a war against that scoundrel 
Brown, and I will teach him a lesson that he never 
learnt before. I shall prove him a most dishonest, dis- 
honorable fellow and, in doing so, I will duly pay him 
a debt I owe him for abusing me for months together 
in his newspaper."* 

Brown bore a relation of intimacy to Upper Can- 
ada similar to that of Howe in Nova Scotia. He tra- 
velled it from end to end and pierced the back settle- 
ments by horse and carriage long before the railways 
had laid their network of steel. To the pioneers in the 
"Queen's Bush" he carried the message of political 
argument for which they hungered, and gladly did 
they listen to his speeches until far beyond midnight. 
He moved among the farmers, inspected their schools, 
visited their homes, and talked sympathetically and 
knowingly of their crops. At night he would address 
them in the largest hall that could be found, and fre- 
quently an overflow meeting was necessary. Political 
beliefs were then held more tenaciously than now, and 
the antiseptic effects of independence had not made 
headway against the old "Grit" and "Tory" maladies. 
Many a meeting was held in the hall above a driving 
shed attached to a tavern, and the near presence of a 
bar did not lessen the enthusiasm of the occasion. 
Candles were the illuminant, and their tiny flames did 
little to pierce the gloom of the malodorous interiors. 

*Sir John A. Macdonald: A Memoir, by Joseph Pope, Vol. I, P. 
162. 

48 



GEORGE BROWN 

Such heavy campaigning, combined with his edi- 
torial duties, would overtax most men. George Brown 
was no weakling in any sense. He has been described 
by a friend as a "steam engine in trousers," and had he 
lived in more recent times would no doubt be called 
"a human dynamo." He seemed never to stop working. 
His mind was ever on the alert, and his body was able 
to keep pace with it. Living before the advent of type- 
writers and the fashion of dictating, he laboriously 
wrote his editorials by hand, using a pencil never more 
than two inches long. Mr. J. Ross Robertson recalls 
the incident of the assassination of Lincoln in 1865. 
He was on The Globe stafif at the time, and on receiv- 
ing the despatch carried the news to Brown's house, 
and waited while his chief wrote an editorial on the 
subject, though it was then late at night. 

Brown's success and dominating place in the life 
of Upper Canada were not the result of accident. His 
parentage and early training were the natural prepara- 
tion for such a life. He was born at Alloa, near Edin- 
burgh, on November 29, 1818, his father, Peter Brown, 
being a respected citizen of the modern Athens, a 
friend of Scott and of other worthies of that day. Dr. 
Gunn, head of the Academy of Edinburgh, which 
George attended, spoke with insight at a public gather- 
ing when in introducing the lad as he was about to 
declaim an exercise he said: "This young gentleman 
is not only endowed with high enthusiasm, but he pos- 
sesses the faculty of creating enthusiasm in others." 

When George was twenty years old his father, hav- 
ing become heavily involved financially, set out for 

49 

4 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

America, bringing the youth with him. Peter Brown 
founded The Albion, a paper for British-born residents 
of the United States. In 1842 he founded The Week- 
ly Chronicle, with himself as editor and his son as 
business manager, and made it a paper for Scottish- 
Americans. A year later George Brown visited Can- 
ada to seek circulation for his paper, and the visit was 
the turning point in his career. Tall, graceful, of good 
address, he was welcomed wherever he went. After 
visiting Toronto he went to Kingston, where members 
of the Baldwin-Lafontaine Government enlisted his 
interest in the fight for responsible government, still far 
from won. George Brown persuaded his father to move 
to Toronto, where The Chronicle was changed to The 
Banner, making its first appearance August 18, 1843. 
The mission of The Banner as an organ of the Free 
Church was soon found too limited, and the Browns 
met the necessities of the case by founding The Globe, 
whose first issue appeared March S, 1844, it being the 
organ of the Baldwin-Lafontaine Government and the 
champion of "Responsible Government." 

No time was lost in declaring that "the battle 
which the Reformers of Canada will fight is not the 
battle of the party but the battle of constitutional right 
against the undue interference of executive power." 
Lord Metcalfe was quick to raise the loyalty cry, so 
often since used in Canadian elections, and his party 
declared the contest to be between loyalty on the one 
side and disaffection to Her Majesty's Government on 
the other. The Governor won in 1844, but the Re- 
formers swept the country in 1848, a result for which 

50 



GEORGE BROWN 

George Brown was largely responsible, and the battle 
for responsible government was won. 

Brown now required a fresh field for his endeavor, 
and in 1850 plunged into an agitation for the seculari- 
zation of the clergy reserves. The Baldwin-Lafon- 
taine Government retired in 1851 and its successor, the 
Hincks-Morin Government, met with the opposition of 
Brown and The Globe. About this time Brown be- 
came the recognized champion of Protestantism be- 
cause of his attack on the pronunciamento of Cardinal 
Wiseman, who had been sent to England by the Pope. 
This ultra-Protestant view, for which he has often been 
criticized on the broader ground of national sentiment, 
alienated the Catholic vote in Haldimand, where 
Brown was first a candidate for Parliament in 1851. 
His principal and successful rival was William Lyon 
Mackenzie, then returned from his exile. JBrown en- 
tered Parliament later in the year as member for the 
then backwoods county of Kent, and at once took a 
commanding place. Clergy reserves were secularized, 
and the seigniorial tenure was abolished a little later, 
but Brown demanded representation by population and 
the abolition of Separate Schools. His motion in 1858 
disapproving of the selection of Ottawa as the capital 
of Canada was carried, the Government resigned, and 
Brown was called on to form a Cabinet. He chose his 
friend, A. A. Dorion, as associate from Lower Canada, 
but the Governor-General refusing a dissolution, the 
Premier and his Cabinet resigned after holding office 
for two days. The former Ministers returned to office 

51 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

as the Cartier-Macdonald Government, following what 
is known as the "Double Shuffle." 

Such card game politics were but the beginning 
of the critical years leading up to 1864. In November, 
1859, the Reformers of Upper Canada, as a great con- 
vention in Toronto, took an aggressive stand in de- 
nouncing the union of 1841. They declared it had fail- 
ed to realize the expectations of its promoters, and 
favored a federation of the two Canadas. 

Brown, in his speech, said some of his friends 
throughout the country were in favor of a federation 
of all the Provinces. "For himself, he would not favor 
a federation so far extended. No, let there first be a 
federation of the Canadas, and then bring in the other 
Provinces if they found it advisable. Perhaps in say- 
ing this he might be looked upon as behind the progress 
of the age. But he thought the great difficulty with 
Canada was that she was too vast. Instead of stretch- 
ing out, let them trim their sails and scud along under 
close reefed topsails until they got into smooth water." 

The Reformers' resolution was defeated in Par- 
liament at the next session, but it undoubtedly had an 
effect in crystallizing public sentiment. Brow^n was 
defeated in his riding in 1861, and went abroad for his 
health, returning late in the following year. The dead- 
lock was now rapidly developing, and the country's 
business came to a standstill. To add to the embarrass- 
ment of the situation, Britain was pressing Canada to 
take a greater share in her own defence, for the vast 
American armies were on the eve of release from the 
Civil War, with a bitter feeling against Canada for her 

52 



GEORGE BROWN 

alleged sympathy with the South. In yet another way 
Canada's interests were menaced by the impending 
abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty which had 
brought prosperity to the country. 

Writing to his family on May 16, 1864, Brown 
sensed the crisis when he said: "Things here are very 
unsatisfactory. No one sees his way out of the mess 
— and there is no way but my way: representation by 
population. There is great talk to-day of a coalition; 
and what do you think? Why, that in order to make 
the coalition successful, the Imperial Government are 
to offer me the governorship of one of the British Col- 
onies! I have been gravely asked to-day by several if 
it is true, and if I would accept!! My reply was, 
I would rather be proprietor of The Globe newspaper 
for a few years than to be governor-general of Can- 
ada, much less a trumpery little province." 

On June 14 Brown, as chairman of the com- 
mittee named to consider the difficulties connected with 
the government of Canada, reported in favor of "a 
federative system applied either to Canada alone or to 
the whole of the British North American Provinces." 
On the same day the Tache-Macdonald Government 
was defeated and resigned. 

The time had now come for action that would 
clear up the chaos once for all. Coalition talk had 
been in the air for several weeks, and it is somewhat 
uncertain who first gave utterance to it. The records 
show that on the next day Brown spoke to two Con- 
servative members, Alexander Morris and John Henry 

53 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Pope, and promised to co-operate with any government 
that would settle the constitutional difficulty. A day 
later John A. Macdonald and George Brown met in 
reconciliation. Macdonald asked Brown if he had 
any objection to meet Gait and himself. Brown's reply 
was, ^'Certainly not," — the exact words have been care- 
fully preserved. The following day Macdonald and 
A. T. Gait called upon Brown at the St. Louis Hotel 
in Quebec, and negotiations began which resulted in 
the coalition being formed. Though the rival leaders 
were in amiable converse, there was still a secret mis- 
trust each of the other, as was shown by the careful set- 
ting down of the conversation and the points agreed 
upon. A farmer dealing with a lightning rod agent 
would not be more careful. The first meeting failed 
of agreement. Later Cartier joined the group and 
an agreement was reached in these terms : 

"The Government are prepared to pledge them- 
selves to bring in a measure next session for the purpose 
of removing existing difficulties by introducing the fed- 
eral principle into Canada, coupled with such provi- 
sions as will permit the Maritime Provinces and the 
Northwest Territory to be incorporated into the same 
system of government and the Government will seek, 
by sending representatives to the Lower Provinces and 
to England, to secure the assent of those interested which 
are beyond the control of our own legislation to such 
a measure as may enable all British North America to 
be united under a general legislature upon the federal 
principle." 

54 



GEORGE BROWN 

While Brown was ready to co-operate with Mac- 
donald to secure Confederation he was not ready to 
enter a Cabinet with him. Lord Monck, the Governor- 
General, now took a hand by urging Brown to take 
office. In his letter of June 21 Lord Monck said: 

"I think the success or failure of the negotiations 
which have been going on for some days with a view to 
forming a strong government on a broad basis depends 
very much on your consenting to go into the Cabinet. 
Under these circumstances I must again take the liberty 
of pressing upon you, by this note, my opinion of the 
grave responsibility which you will take upon your- 
self if you refuse to do so." 

Two days later Brown wrote to his family that in 
consenting to enter the Cabinet he was influenced by 
private letters from many quarters and still more by 
the urgency of Lord Monck. Further, and finally, there 
was the prospect that otherwise the whole effort for con- 
stitutional changes would fail and the advantages 
gained by the negotiations be lost. "And it was such a 
temptation," he adds, "to have possibly the power of set- 
tling the sectional troubles of Canada forever." "The 
unanimity of sentiment is without example in this 
country," he goes on, and then comes this introspective 
glance : 

"And were it not that I know at their exact value 
the worth of newspaper laudations, I might be puffed 
up a little in my own conceit. After the explanations 
by ministers I had to make a speech, but was so excited 
and nervous at the events of the last few days that I 
nearly broke down." 

55 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Mr. Brown was not the only man who was excited. 
Sir Richard Cartwright relates a comical incident of 
the day: 

"On that memorable afternoon when Mr. Brown, 
not without emotion, made his statement to a hushed 
and expectant House, and declared that he was about 
to ally himself with Sir George Cartier and his friends 
for the purpose of carrying out Confederation, I saw 
an excitable elderly little French member rush across 
the floor, climb up on Mr. Brown, who, as you remem- 
ber, was of a stature approaching the gigantic, fling 
his arms about his neck and hang several seconds there 
suspended, to the visible consternation of Mr. Brown 
and to the infinite joy of all beholders, pit, box and 
gallery included."* 

Once the Canadian Parliament was committed to 
a settlement of the constitutional question, events moved 
quickly. Mr. Brown joined his colleagues in the visit 
to the Charlottetown Conference, spoke with them 
afterwards in the Maritime Provinces, and took part 
in the Quebec Conference in October when the basis 
of union was drafted. During this conference some 
controversies arose and he was one of the majority 
who favored a nominated Senate, thus differing from 
Mowat and McDougall. He declared his belief that 
two elective chambers were incompatible with the 
British parliamentary system, and that an elected 
upper chamber might claim equal power with the 
lower, including power over money bills. The dele- 

*"Memories of Confederation," address by Sir Richard Cartwright 
to Ottawa Canadian Club, Jan. 20, 1906. 

56 



GEORGE BROWN 

gates then visited Canada and explained the terms of 
the proposed union. 

Brown was now a thorough convert to the idea of 
the larger union and expounded it with the same fer- 
vor that had lashed Upper Canada into discontent over 
the union of 1841. Speaking at Halifax after the 
Charlottetown Conference, he said : 

"Our sole object in coming here is to say to you — 
'We are about to amend our constitution, and before 
finally doing so we invite you to enter with us frankly 
and earnestly into an inquiry whether it would be or 
would not be for the advantage of all the British 
American colonies to be embraced in one political 
system. Let us look the whole question steadily in the 
face — if we find it advantageous, let us act upon it, but 
if not, let the whole thing drop.' That is the whole 
story of our being here — that is the full scope and in- 
tention of our present visit." 

Mr, Brown also spoke at Montreal during the dele- 
gates^ tour, and at a great banquet in Toronto he ex- 
plained the scheme in detail. Upper Canada was now 
agog with interest in the proposals and when the dele- 
gates reached Toronto late at night a crowd of eight 
thousand met them at the station. 

Of the many worthy speeches delivered during 
the Confederation debate in the winter of 1865, Mr. 
Brown's stood out for its complete analysis and well 
considered arguments. It may not have been the most 
eloquent speech, but it presented the case for Confed- 
eration in an orderly and convincing manner. Mr. 
Brown spoke for four and one-half hours. 

57 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

"For myself," he said, "I care not who gets the 
credit of this scheme — I believe it contains the best 
features of all the suggestions that have been made in 
the last ten years for the settlement of our troubles, and 
the whole feeling in my mind now is one of joy and 
thankfulness that there were found men of position and 
influence in Canada who at a moment of serious crisis 
had nerve and patriotism enough to cast aside politi- 
cal partisanship, to banish personal considerations and 
unite for the accomplishment of a measure so fraught 
with advantage to their common country. 

"One hundred years have passed away," he went 
on, "since the conquest of Quebec, but here sit children 
of the victor and of the vanquished of avowed hearty 
attachment to the British Crown — all earnestly de- 
liberating how we shall best extend the blessings of Bri- 
tish institutions — how a great people may be established 
on this continent in close and hearty connection with 
Great Britain. Where in the page of history shall we 
find a parallel to this? Will it not stand as an imper- 
ishable monument to the generosity of British rule? 
Does it not lift us above the petty politics of the past, 
and present to us high purpose and great interests that 
may yet call forth all the intellectual ability and all the 
energy and enterprise to be found among us?" 

Mr. Brown gave seven strong reasons for support- 
ing the union scheme : ( 1 ) Because it will raise us 
from the attitude of a number of inconsiderable 
colonies into a great and powerful people; (2) be- 
cause it will throw down the barriers of trade and give 
us the control of a market of four millions of people; 

58 



GEORGE BROWN 

(3) because it will make us the third maritime power 
in the world; (4) because it will give a new start to 
immigration into our country; (5) because it will 
enable us to meet without alarm the abrogation of 
the American Reciprocity Treaty in case the United 
States should decide upon its abolition; (6) because 
in the event of war it will enable all the colonies to 
defend themselves better and give more efficient aid 
to the Empire than they can do separately; and (7) 
it will give us a seaboard at all seasons of the year. 

Looking back, after fifty years, at Mr. Brown's 
arguments and expectations, it cannot be said that he 
overstated the case. His conclusion was equally re- 
strained and yet hopeful. 

"The future destiny of this great Province," he 
said, "may be affected by the decision we are about 
to give to an extent which at this moment we may be 
unable to estimate, but assuredly the welfare for many 
3'ears of four millions of people hangs on our decision. 
Shall we then rise to the occasion? Shall we approach 
this discussion without partisanship and free from 
every personal feeling but an earnest resolution to dis- 
charge conscientiously the duty which an overruling 
Providence has placed upon us? It may be that some 
among us will yet live to see the day when as a result 
of this measure a great and powerful people may have 
grown up on these lands — when the boundless forests 
all around us shall have given way to smiling fields 
and thriving towns — and when one united government 
under the British flag shall extend from shore to shore; 
but who would desire to see that day if he could not 

59 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

recall with satisfaction the part he took in this discus- 
sion?" 

Brown's connection with the coalition government 
was destined to be short-lived. He seemed never to re- 
gard it in any other light. After his return from the 
Quebec Conference, in a family letter he said : "At 
any rate, come what may, I can now get out of the 
affair and out of public life with honor, for I have had 
placed on record a scheme that would bring to an end 
all the grievances of which Upper Canada has so long 
complained." 

During the summer of 1865 he accompanied John 
A. Macdonald, Gait and Cartier to England to confer 
with the Imperial Government regarding federation, 
defence, reciprocity and the acquisition of the North- 
west Territories. In November of that year he re- 
signed from the Cabinet. The reason given was his 
difference with his colleagues regarding the form of 
the possible renewal of reciprocity with the United 
States; he favored a definite treaty as before, while 
they favored concurrent legislation. It is altogether 
likely that this explanation was a mask for his firmly 
held desire to make his exit from an unhappy environ- 
ment. On retiring he made it plain to Lord Monck 
that he would continue to support Confederation until 
the new constitution became effective. 

James Young in his "Public Men and Public Life 
in Canada" tells of a meeting with Mr. Brown at 
Hamilton station just after his resignation. He still 
showed signs of the mental and physical excitement 
through which he had just passed. During the con- 

60 



GEORGE BROWN 

versation Mr. Brown referred to the differences over 
reciprocity, but said the relations between himself and 
Macdonald had greatly changed since Brown had 
refused to consent to his rival's elevation to the 
Premiership. In short, Mr. Brown "had come to the 
conclusion that for some time Attorney-General Mac- 
donald had been endeavoring to make his position in 
the Cabinet untenable unless with humiliation and loss 
of popularity on his part." 

Having abandoned his temporary political allies 
— and sober historians of both parties view the step as 
a mistake — Brown set himself to reuniting his party. 
Oliver Mowat, who had gone into the Cabinet with 
him, was now on the Bench, and he had been succeeded 
by W. P. Rowland. William McDougall, the other Re- 
former in the coalition, and Rowland were pressed by 
Macdonald to remain in the first Confederation 
Ministry, and did so. Their day of reckoning soon 
came. On June 27, a few days before Confederation 
became effective, they attended the Upper Canada Re- 
form convention in Toronto, were harshly treated by 
the delegates when they spoke, and were read out of 
the party for their alleged "treachery." George Brown 
was the chief instrument of their undoing. Re roused 
the audience to indignation against his quondam 
friends. An impressive picture of his appearance and 
denunciation of Macdonald on this occasion is given 
by Sir George W. Ross : 

"I remember well his tall form and intense earnest- 
ness as he paced the platform, emphasizing with long 
arms and swinging gestures the torrent of his invective. 

61 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

His manner was so intense, because of its flaming 
earnestness, as to overshadow the cogency and force of 
his arguments. Every sentence had the ring of the 
trip hammer. Every climax smelt of volcanic fire — 
sulphurous, scorching, startling — and the response was 
equally torrid.* 

Alongside George Brown's services for Confeder- 
ation must be placed his work for the acquisition of 
the Northwest Territory. He became interested in 
this question soon after his arrival in Canada, and in 
1847 The Globe published in full a lecture by Robert 
Baldwin Sullivan, who knew the value of the country, 
and pointed out the danger of the westward trek of 
Americans resulting in their occupation of that terri- 
tory. Brown referred to the Northwest in his opening 
speech in Parliament in 1851, and in 1852 The Globe 
published an article declaring that the exclusion from 
civilization of half a continent for the benefit of 232 
shareholders was unpardonable. The agitation was 
kept up despite the jeers of less discerning editors and 
politicians. In a speech at Belleville in 1858 Brown 
said: 

"Sir, it is my fervent aspiration and hope that some 
here to-night may live to see the day when the British 
American flag shall proudly wave from Labrador to 
Vancouver Island, and from our own Niagara to the 
shores of Hudson Bay." 

♦Getting Into Parliament and After, by Sir George W. Ross, 
(William Briggs), P. 20. 



62 



GEORGE BROWN 

The seed had been sown largely through the 
vision and persistence of Brown, and the acquisition 
of the Northwest came in 1869, through the medium, 
it is true, of other hands. 

Brown's public life virtually ended at Confedera- 
tion by his defeat in South Ontario in 1867. Already 
in May of that year he had looked forward to the free- 
dom of retirement when in a letter to L. H. Holton of 
Montreal he said: "My fixed determination is to see 
the Liberal party reunited and in the ascendant, and 
then make my bow as a politician. . . . To be 
bebarred by fear of injuring the party from saying 

that is unfit to sit in Parliament, and that is 

very stupid, makes journalism a very small business. 
Party leadership and the conducting of a great journal 
do not harmonize." 

Brown thereafter gave little attention to politics 
except through The Globe. He left the party leaders 
free, save when they sought his advice, which was freely 
given. He was appointed to the Senate in December, 
1873, but took little part in its proceedings. He found 
it a dreary and uninspiring place, and in writing of 
his reciprocity speech there in March, 1875, he said, 
"it was an awful job," and that "the Senate is so quiet." 
In the critical election of 1872 he made but one speech. 
He divided his interest between his newspaper and his 
high-class Bow Park Farm at Brantford. Here he 
spent happily the evening of his life, his hours filled 
with peace after the fretful years of politics. 

Mr. Brown was the second Father of Confedera- 
tion to die at the hand of an assassin. D'Arcy McGee 

63 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

was shot in 1868; Mr. Brown was wounded by George 
Bennett, a discharged employee, on March 25, 1880, 
and died on May 10, following. The country was 
grieved at the tragic ending of so useful a career, and 
in the common sorrow criticism was stilled. A poli- 
tician who gave and received hard knocks was, after 
all, a warm-hearted husband and father, and a man 
known and personally loved by tens of thousands of 
his fellows. His passing caused a wave of regret, and 
the years have effaced party feeling and steadily magni- 
fied his part in laying the foundation of the expand- 
ing Dominion. 



64 



SIR OLIVER MOWAT 




SIR OLIVER MOWAT 



SIR OLIVER MOW AT 

(1820-1903) 

WHAT is the secret of the political success of 
Oliver Mowat? Long opposed by the fire and 
skill of W. R. Meredith in Ontario, and by the weight 
of Sir John A. Macdonald's great influence from 
Ottawa, he yet remained Premier of Ontario for twenty- 
four years, became Minister of Justice, and died as 
Lieutenant-Governor after a life of unbroken triumphs. 

Buttoned up in his dark Prince Albert, masked by 
heavy spectacles, and handicapped by short-sight and 
hesitating speech, he was known to relatively few of 
the millions he governed. He was not a popular orator 
and he was not a hail-fellow-well-met. 

On these grounds he was more of a tradition than 
a personality. The people knew that in some room in 
the Parliament Buildings a little, round-faced, earnest 
man was on the job, that he surrounded himself with 
able colleagues, that he was courteous to callers, if he 
did not grant all favors asked, and that somehow he 
contrived to express their wants for a strong provin- 
cial government, and to engender a wholesome senti- 
ment that pleased moral, church-going people. 

For fifty years the lives of Oliver Mowat and John 
A. Macdonald crossed and clashed in the public and 
private life of Upper Canada. They were boys together 
in Kingston, they were friends and rivals at the Bar, and 
Mowat once opposed Macdonald for Parliament. 
In the session of 1860 Mowat so taunted Macdonald 

67 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

that the latter crossed the floor and threatened to "slap 
his chops." As an ally of George Brown, he was usually 
at war with Macdonald, but in 1864 he went with 
Brown and McDougall into the coalition Cabinet, and 
later joined the Quebec Conference to arrange Con- 
federation. Here Macdonald stood for a strong cen- 
tral government, while Mowat upheld the sovereign 
power of the local governments. This warfare contin- 
ued years later when Macdonald's invasions of provin- 
cial rights were resisted by Premier Mowat, and the 
Province's powers as construed by the "little tyrant of 
Ontario," as Macdonald called him, were upheld by 
the Privy Council in several memorable decisions. 
These included the insurance case, the liquor license 
law, the rivers and streams case, and the Manitoba 
boundary award.* Added to this was the covert aid 
given by Macdonald to his political allies who were 
fighting Mowat; but all were without avail against the 
commander of the Ontario citadel. 

The fact is that each man was supreme in his own 
way. Macdonald was what politicians are pleased to 
call a "mixer," with arms around the shoulders of 

♦By decisions of the Privy Council in important appeal cases the 
rights of the Province of Ontario were upheld in disputes with the Domin- 
ion and the following points established : Lands of Canada escheated to 
the Crown for defect of heirs revert to the Province in which they arc 
situated; liquor licenses may be regulated by the Province, as under the 
Crooks Act; Provincial insurance regulations apply to insurers, whatever 
the origin of latter; sawlogs and timber may be floated down streams 
in respect of which the Province has authority to give this power; the 
boundary of Ontario was extended west to Lake of the Woods and north 
to Hudson Bay, thus more than doubling the area of the Province; 
Ontario secured the rights to timber and minerals on land formerly held 
by Indians and assigned to the Dominion by treaty; the Province has 
unlimited jurisdiction over penalties and punishments prescribed by itself, 
and has also the right to appoint Queen's Counsel. 

68 



SIR OLIVER MOW AT 

even casual friends, with a shout and a sally that 
attracted every man with red blood in his veins. 
Mowat, though not without restrained good humor 
and love of a joke, was never wholly divested 
of the air of the Bench which he once adorned, and 
cased in with dignity and aloofness contrasting strange- 
ly with his great rival. Macdonald was a master of 
strategy and a manipulator of men, one whose refusals 
even were couched in engaging language. Mowat was 
prolific of ideas, and had unusual natural gifts for pub- 
lic service. While Macdonald made friends by con- 
tact with the people, Mowat burned midnight oil and 
brought forth a full and lucid argument that was sel- 
dom broken by the enemy. Macdonald on the hustings 
stood forth radiant but belligerent, fluent of party doc- 
trine, and carrying the war into the enemy's camp. 
Mowat, with thin voice, hesitating delivery, and care- 
fully rehearsed sentences, made less impression on his 
hearers, but his powerful logical appeal when printed 
was a convincing document for his party. 

Oliver Mowat's ancestry and early life were typi- 
cal of his generation in Upper Canada. His father, 
John Mowat, came from Caithness, on whose storm- 
beaten coast his forefathers had lived for nearly five 
hundred years. The elder Mowat, born in 1791, ran 
away at sixteen and enlisted to fight Napoleon. In 1814 
his regiment was sent to Canada to help close the war 
of 1812. Discharged a little later, he settled near King- 
ston, and hither came, alone, in 1819, Helen Levack, 
the sweetheart of his youth. He met her at Montreal, 

69 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

where they were married, and afterwards drove to King- 
ston along the shores of the St. Lawrence. Five children 
were born to John and Helen Mowat, Oliver, the eld- 
est, seeing the light at Kingston, then the most impor- 
tant town in Upper Canada, on July 22, 1820. Oliver 
was carefully educated in private schools, and at sixteen 
entered the law office of John A. Macdonald, then a 
youth of twenty-one. Fate was already at work on its 
tapestry, for in this little office were three men, after- 
wards Fathers of Confederation, Mowat's fellow-clerk 
being Alexander Campbell, later also a Knight and 
Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. 

During the Mackenzie Rebellion troubles of this 
time young Mowat became a member of the First 
Battalion of Frontenac Militia. In November, 1840, 
he came to Toronto to complete his law education, and 
entered the office of Strachan & Burns, the senior part- 
ner being a son of Bishop Strachan, and one of his 
fellow-students being John Beverley Robinson, after- 
wards Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. From now on, 
for several years, he applied himself tenaciously to the 
study of law, so closely that Campbell, with whom he 
corresponded, reproached him for neglecting his health 
and recreation, a neglect which seemed to result in 
brooding and a fear that he "would never be anybody." 
He was called to the Bar in 1841, and formed a part- 
nership with Burns, his late principal. For a few 
months he lived in Kingston, during the location there 
of the Court of Chancery. He worked early and late 
at his office and in 1844 declared his ignorance of 
politics, and therefore his intention not to vote. About 

70 



SIR OLIVER MOW AT 

this time he became intimate with the family of John 
Ewart, builder and contractor, who erected the old 
Parliament Buildings in Front Street, and the Queen 
Street Lunatic Asylum, and in 1846 he was married 
to the youngest daughter, ''the beautiful Miss Ewart," 
as she was called, whose happy wedded life lasted until 
she passed away in 1893. 

Young Mowat's prosperity kept pace with his 
industry, his partners changed from time to time, and 
in 1853 he sent his brother John a substantial gift, 
saying, "A good Providence has smiled on me: health, 
a good wife, five children, agreeable friends, a pro- 
fession which I like, have been some of the blessings 
of my lot." He was enriching his mind from a store 
of general literature, and from companionship with 
the city's best, w^hom he entertained freely in his large 
house on the west side of Jarvis Street, north of Carlton. 

By the end of 1856 Oliver Mowat's natural gifts 
for public life could no longer be repressed and he 
was elected an alderman for St. Lawrence Ward. It 
seems a humble beginning, but even there he became 
the father of the city's park system. His greatest plunge 
came in the general elections of 1857, when he entered 
the lists for the Assembly in South Ontario. His 
opponent was Joseph Curran Morrison, and the fight 
was a memorable one. Mowat stood for representa- 
tion by population and non-sectarian schools, and 
closed his election address with these words : "If elect- 
ed my desire is to perform my duty in Parliament in 
the spirit and with the views which become a Christian 

71 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

politician."* This lofty ideal became historic, and 
though Mowat was frequently taunted for it in after 
years, his record and his relation to the Presbyterian 
Church gave it a meaning which few attempted to 
destroy. The campaign closed with a majority of 778 
for Mowat, who at once went into opposition to the 
Macdonald-Cartier Government of the day, saying in 
a letter to Alexander Campbell: "It did seem to me 
that opposition to such a government had become the 
duty of everyone." "I think," he added, "we should 
struggle to purify public sentiment and political senti- 
ment. I have taken great pains to be right in my start 
upon political life. I hope I have not made a mistake. 
I dare say I shall find I have lost Macdonald's friend- 
ship, and perhaps for awhile somewhat clouded Van 
Koughnet'sf also. I shall be very sorry for this ; but one 
must not shape one's political course by friendship."! 
The Canadian Assembly had already entered upon 
its most stormy period when Oliver Mowat took his 
seat on February 25, 1858. The session was long and 
boisterous, and the new member at once took his place 
with Brown as a strong Opposition figure. His 
speeches, while not oratorical, commanded attention for 
argument, and for his courtesy to opponents. In 
August the "Double Shuffle" took place, and Mowat 
was a member of the Brown-Dorion Cabinet during 
its two days' existence. He introduced a measure of 

*Sir Oliver Mowat : A Biographical Sketch, by C. R. W. Biggar, 
Vol. I, P. 70. 

t Philip M. S. Van Koughnet, (1823-69), a former law partner of 
Oliver Mowat, and colleague of John A. Macdonald from 1856 to 1862. 
+ Sir Oliver Mowat: A Biographical Sketch, by C. R. W. Biggar. 
Vol. I, P. 74-5. 

72 



SIR OLIVER MOW AT 

law reform at the next session, the first of several con- 
structire measures during his early life in Parliament. 

Upper Canada's exasperation over the working out 
of the Act of Union found expression at the great Re- 
form convention in Toronto in November, 1859. Over 
five hundred delegates assembled in the old St. 
Lawrence Hall, which still stands, and opinion was 
divided over a demand for dissolution of the union or 
a federation of the two Provinces. A resolution was 
passed favoring federation, with two or more local gov- 
ernments to deal with local matters, and "some joint 
authority" to deal with matters common to both sec- 
tions. This resolution, which was strongly supported 
by Oliver Mowat, is generally regarded as pointing 
the way to the larger union of a later day. 

Oliver Mowat's speech was a careful balancing of 
the arguments on both sides, with unqualified condem- 
nation of existing conditions. "The feeling in favor 
of representation according to population has for some 
time been general," he said, "and there has been an 
impression as strong as any that ever was formed that 
if the union is to continue in its present form, that is the 
only principle that can be regarded as just or equal. . 
. . It is certain that there is the most resolute deter- 
mination on the part of Lower Canada to resist this de- 
mand, and if we ask for dissolution pure and simple it 
will take a long time to remove the obstacles thus pre- 
sented. . . . 

"In the meantime what are we not enduring? If 
we were only well governed by Lower Canada ; if she 
gave us good laws such as we desired, we might bear 

73 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

with the power she has of preventing us from making 
such laws for ourselves — we might afford to wait. But 
she does not do so. The Lower Canadians impose upon 
us laws which we do not want. The legislation of the 
last two years has been legislation directed against 
Upper Canada and in favor of Lower Canada." 

During the next five years there was constant tur- 
moil in the politics of Canada, and Oliver Mowat was 
in the thick of it. He was re-elected in 1861 in South 
Ontario, but a contest with John A. Macdonald in 
Kingston at the same election brought defeat. When the 
Cartier-Macdonald Government fell in 1862, after 
Cartier's usual answer to criticism, "Call in de mem- 
bers," had lost its magic, Mowat was offered a seat in 
the Sandfield Macdonald-Sicotte Cabinet, but declined 
because the Ministry would not treat representation by 
population as a close question. When Sicotte was re- 
placed by A. A. Dorion in May, 1 863, Mowat accept- 
ed an invitation to become Postmaster-General and 
held this office until the Government resigned in the 
following March, resuming the post in June in the 
new coalition Government. This was the culmination 
of the years of bitterness and deadlock, and Mowat 
entered upon the duties that followed with the same 
ready efficiency that he applied to all his tasks. 

Oliver Mowat was not at the Charlottetown Con- 
ference, but he took a prominent part in the delibera- 
tions at Quebec. He drafted several of the resolutions 
which were finally adopted, principally those defining 
the respective powers of the general and local parlia- 

74 



SIR OLIVER MOW AT 

ments. In this connection the Canadian Fathers had 
before them the object lesson of the American Union, 
just then torn almost to distraction by a war involving 
states rights. John A. Macdonald w^as for a strong 
central power, while Oliver Mowat favored the doc- 
trine of local sovereignty. 

"The question of states rights," says the historian 
of the conferences, "which led to the frightful war in 
the United States, w^as forcibly enlarged upon, and an 
earnest desire expressed that in the framing of the 
new constitution difficulties which might lead to such 
results might be avoided."* 

Mowat's proposed clause defining the powers of 
the local parliaments to deal with education, agricul- 
ture, and so forth, was adopted with minor changes, 
and became the basis of section 92 of the British North 
America Act. One change of some consequence was 
made on motion of D'Arcy McGee, in giving the pro- 
vinces the right to legislate on education, by adding the 
words "Saving the rights and privileges which the 
Protestant or Catholic minority in both Canadas may 
possess as to their denominational schools at the time 
when the constitutional act comes into operation." 

Mowat joined William McDougall in pressing 
for an elective Senate, but the view of Brown and Mac- 
donald for a nominated Upper House prevailed, their 
contention being that two popular chambers were "in- 
compatible." Mowat, also, according to his biogra- 
pher, urged that the provincial parliaments be made 
co-ordinate with and not subordinate to the federal 

♦Confederation, by John Hamilton Gray, P. 57. 

75 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

parliament, and that the veto power over them be 
vested in the Imperial authorities, and not in Ottawa. 
Thus throughout the conference the aim of Mowat was 
to secure strong local parliaments. If he in a measure 
failed there, he was destined to move to a sphere where 
he could more completely implement his will. 

Meantime Oliver Mowat's political services came 
to an abrupt end for the time. During the sittings 
at Quebec Vice-Chancellor Esten of Upper Canada 
died, and John A. Macdonald offered the post to 
Mowat. He consulted his friends on both sides, re- 
ceived varying answers, and in November mounted the 
Bench, which he adorned by his judicial temperament 
and terse and lucid judgments until 1872. 

It is not a relevant part of this series to describe 
at length the services of Oliver Mowat as Premier of 
Ontario. His work is a part of the history of the Pro- 
vince for twenty-four years while foundations, sane 
and progressive, were laid for its future greatness. Its 
legislation under the federation had to be developed 
"broad based upon the people's will," and Oliver 
Mowat, with his rich experience in law, in Parliament, 
and on the Bench, coupled with his instinct for leader- 
ship and his enlightened conservatism, became the 
inevitable choice. At this time the masterful Sir John 
A. Macdonald was seeking wider outlets for his power 
by infringing on provincial jurisdiction. In 1872, when 
dual representation was abolished, Edward Blake,* 

*Edward Blake, (1833-1912), was one of the greatest intellectual 
figures in the history of Canadian public life. He entered the House of 
Commons and the Ontario Legislature in 1867, retiring from the latter 
in 1872, after one year as Premier. He was a member of the Mackenzie 
Cabinet from 1873 to 1878, and thereafter until 1887 leader of the 
federal Liberal party. From 1892 to 1907 he was member for South 
Longford in the British House of Commons. 

76 



SIR OLIVER MOW AT 

who had succeeded John Sandfield Macdonald as Pre- 
mier of Ontario, and Alexander Mackenzie* chose 
to remain in the federal field, and forsook the Legisla- 
ture. Blake and George Brown, one October morning, 
invaded the secluded home of Judge Mowat in Simcoe 
Street, and urged that considerations of political and 
public welfare demanded his resignation from the 
serenity and security of the Bench to become Premier 
of Ontario. Two days of consideration led Judge 
Mowat to become Premier Mowat, and the long years 
of struggle and repeated triumphs began. His politi- 
cal opponents bewailed the degradation which the 
Bench had suffered by Mowat's desertion of it for the 
"unclean" realm of politics. 

"I feel," Mowat replied, with spirit, "that I am 
as much discharging my duty now and acting upon as 
high moral principles as if I were still an occupant of 
the Bench." 

Thereafter the years were filled with constructive 
public service, a record of which would fill a volume. 
A large part of the Sandfield Macdonald surplus was 
distributed to the municipalities for public works, for 
which act the Government was charged with extrava- 
gance. Law reform was advanced step by step, the 
statutes were consolidated, voting by ballot was intro- 
duced, roads built, immigration and education en- 

* Alexander Mackenzie, (1822-92), began life as a stonemason, 
and was Premier of Canada from 1873 to 1878. He was a member of 
the provincial Parliament from 1861 to 1867, and in 1864 was one of a 
small group of Liberals who opposed for a time George Brown's entrance 
into the coalition government which brought about Confederation. From 
1867 until his death Mr. Mackenzie was a member of the House of 
Commons, where his debating ability and his strict integrity won the 
respect of every one. 

11 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

couraged, new parliament buildings erected, and a host 
of measures passed which led the way for other pro- 
vinces, and are now the very fibre of our common- 
wealth. 

In his relation to Confederation Oliver Mowat 
stands as the faithful champion of proyincial rights. 
His Premiership was marked for over a decade by re- 
curring strife with Sir John A. Macdonald. We have 
seen how the two men lined up on different sides at the 
Quebec Conference. After Confederation Macdonald 
sought repeatedly to encroach on provincial powers. 
In eight celebrated cases he was resisted by Mowat, 
and in the appeals to the Privy Council the Province 
won. These decisions constitute a charter of liberty for 
the provinces, and while the federal Government re- 
tains the veto and the residuum of power, the provin- 
cial status has been clarified and defined for all time. 

While these conflicts resulted in a public service, 
they also rendered a political service to the leader who 
so aggressively championed the rights of his Province, 
for Macdonald's actions drove Conservatives to support 
Mowat in the Provincial contest. 

"Sir Oliver Mowat's success in the courts of Can- 
ada, and particularly before the Privy Council,"' wrote 
Sir George W. Ross, for many years one of his col- 
leagues, "raised him greatly in the estimation of the 
whole people of Ontario. Were it not for these con- 
flicts with the Dominion Government I doubt if Sir 
Oliver would have survived the general election of 
1883."* 

♦Getting Into Parliament and After, by Sir George W. Ross, 
P. 187. 

78 



SIR OLIVER MOW AT 

Faced by the vigilant Meredith and menaced by 
the jealous federal Conservative organization, Mowat 
went his way. His courtesy to opponents, and his 
complete mastery of all subjects undertaken, coupled 
with a discernible degree of craft, swept difficulties 
from his path, and his leadership was ungrudgingly 
admitted and never questioned. He escaped the quick- 
sands of creed disputes over the French schools, and 
drew the fangs of the Patrons of Industry when the 
embattled farmers joined the pilgrims of unrest in the 
early 'nineties and almost won a balance of power in 
the Legislature. "Facts for Irish Electors" were shown 
to be far from the truth they were represented, the re- 
peated cry, "Mowat Must Go," spent its force against 
the rocks of public confidence, and the little "Christian 
Statesman" went his way securely if not always 
serenely. 

In the middle 'nineties the federal Conservative 
party broke down following the death of Sir John A. 
Macdonald, who had truly prophesied, "After me, the 
deluge." In 1896 the election of Wilfrid Laurier and 
the Liberals was almost a certainty. Mowat once more 
responded to the call from another sphere, and link- 
ing his name in the campaign slogan, "Laurier, Mowat 
and Victory," marched into the enemy's fortress, which 
had so long repelled siege. He was appointed to the 
Senate, and served as Minister of Justice for a year, 
when, his duty well done in the world of politics, he 
retired to the comparative calm of the Lieutenant- 
Governorship of Ontario. Here he could look on with 
sympathetic eye while others carried forward the tasks 

79 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

he so long essayed. He was now 11 years of age, and 
his health gradually failed. He died in office on April 
19, 1903. 

A few months earlier, in the sunset of his life, 
Oliver Mowat was asked if any one thing more than 
another had given him satisfaction as he looked over 
life's experiences. 

"It is a satisfaction to me," he replied, slowly, 
"now that I am an old man, two years past the four 
score limit, to think that throughout my life I have tried 
to do my duty." 

Sir Oliver Mowat's place among Canadian nation 
builders is already fairly defined. His public ser- 
vice of almost fifty years covered the period when con- 
structive work was of the highest value. A later age 
might call for a more radical temperament, for he was 
essentially conservative. In his day he brought to his 
duties moral and mental qualities that were as neces- 
sary as they were exceptional. His unblemished char- 
acter was an asset to his party and a guarantee for his 
country. He combined in rare degree the knowledge of 
the lawyer and the sagacity of the statesman, and was, as 
Sir Wilfrid Laurier said in announcing his death t(> 
Parliament, "the most correct interpreter of our con 
stitution that Canada has yet produced." 



80 



WILLIAM McDOUGALL 




WILLIAM McDOUGALL 



WILLIAM McDOUGALL 

(1S22-1905) 

WILLIAM McDOUGALL plowed a devious 
and often lonely furrow in Canadian politics. 
He was a constructive and resourceful statesman, 
against whom the fates conspired at every crisis in his 
public life. The father of a radical platform in 1851, 
which he lived to see largely adopted by other politi- 
cians, he won no commanding place himself, and 
played a supporting part to other leaders, often of less 
ability. Joining George Brown as a Reformer in the 
coalition Cabinet of 1864, he later quarrelled with him 
and the party, and remained in the Macdonald Min- 
istry which introduced the union. He moved the reso- 
lutions in 1867 which resulted in the purchase of the 
Northwest from the Hudson's Bay Company, thus 
doubling the area of the Dominion, but as the first 
Governor of the new region he was ignominiously 
driven from the boundary by the angry half-breeds, and 
returned a broken and discounted figure. McDougall 
leaves as his contribution to the Confederation drama 
the memory of a skilful publicist, an artful orator, and 
an imaginative legislator. He was, however, the victim 
of an unexplained coldness and a mental inertia which 
handicapped his progress. A more attractive person- 
ality and a greater driving force would have carried 
him farther in the great tasks of his generation. His 
political misfortunes, which would have been avoided 
by a more crafty politician, earned him the name of 

83 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

"Wandering Willie," and cast an undeserved aspersion 
on an earnest and faithful public servant. 

For a generation McDougall was a familiar and 
imposing figure on the Canadian political stage. As 
an orator he appealed to the intellect. His speeches 
were marked by a steady flow of highly compacted 
logical expression, while Brown, who possessed more 
enthusiasm, usually began hesitatingly, and warmed up 
as the audience responded. 

As a lad of fifteen William McDougall witnessed 
the burning of Montgomery's Tavern near his home 
north of Toronto by the Loyalists in 1837. The inci- 
dent, enacted by Sir Francis Bond Head "to mark and 
record by some act of stern vengeance the important 
victory," impressed him as a shameless vandalism by 
the oligarchy of those days, and one of the first acts of 
his manhood was the formation of the radical platform 
identified with the "Clear Grit" party of 1851. This 
movement, which at first was despised by even a wing 
of the Reform party, was undoubtedly a reflection 
on this continent of the Chartist and other liberal agi- 
tations of the time in Europe. It took form at a conven- 
tion at Markham, Ontario, in March, 1850, and asso- 
ciated with McDougall were Dr. John Rolph, Mal- 
colm C. Cameron, Peter Perry of Whitby, Caleb Hop- 
kins, David Christie and others. Thereafter Mc- 
Dougall gave currency to the "Clear Grit" planks by 
constant publication in his newspaper, The North 
American. Among the reforms advocated were: Elec- 
tive Institutions from the Highest Office of the Govern- 
ment to the Lowest, Abolition of Property Qualification 

84 



WILLIAM McDOUGALL 

for Members, Extension of the Elective Franchise to all 
Householders and Housekeepers, Vote by Ballot, Bien- 
nial and Fixed Parliaments, No Expenditure of Pub- 
lic Money Without the Consent of Parliament, Re- 
trenchment Through all Departments of State, Repre- 
sentation by Population, Application of the Clergy Re- 
serves to Educational Purposes, and Commercial 
Autonomy. 

Although McDougall lived to see most of these 
become part of the lav^s of Canada, he and his fellow^ 
radicals were referred to scornfully in The Globe as 
"Calebites," the "adoption of w^hose principles w^ould 
simply be a revolution." Theirs was the fate of many 
another pioneer, not to say of many another insurgent 
whose dreams divide his own party. 

McDougall, who was born on January 25, 1822, 
had been carefully educated in Toronto, and Victoria 
College, Cobourg, and was admitted as an attorney and 
solicitor in 1847. A natural controversialist and pub- 
licist, he quickly drifted into journalism, and despite 
his great ability never became eminent at the Bar. Be- 
sides founding and editing The North American, he 
had contributed to The Examiner and had established 
an agricultural paper called The Canada Farmer. 
Notwithstanding the spiciness of its articles, and the 
energy and constructive ability put into The North 
American, it was bitterly controversial and was not a 
success. In 1857 it was merged with The Globe. Its 
editor went with it, and was associated with George 
Brown for the next three years. 

85 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

It was evident already that McDougall had abun- 
dant talent for public life. He was a ready speaker, 
having emulated Socrates and developed his oratory 
by rehearsing with the stumps on his father's farm for 
audience. He ran for Parliament in Perth in 1857, 
but several contests were necessary before Brown's in- 
fluence finally brought victory in North Oxford in 
1858. He took a prominent part, in the Reform 
convention in Toronto in 1859, in shaping the resolu- 
tion which favored a federation of tht two Canadas. 
From then on he was conspicuous in the troubled 
politics of his day, and served in Sandfield Macdon- 
ald's cabinets until their retirement in 1864. With 
Brown and Mowat he entered the coalition preceding 
Confederation, and was joint Secretary with John 
Hamilton Gray at the Quebec Conference. He allied 
himself with Mowat at Quebec in urging an elective 
instead of a nominated Senate. 

Laudable as were the motives of the great rap- 
prochement wherein Brown and his colleagues sank 
party feeling to achieve Confederation, they were not at 
once understood or appreciated in Upper Canada by 
either party. McDougall, on seeking re-election in 
North Ontario, had an uphill battle from the first. 
Dr. Thomas Pyne, voicing Newmarket Conservative 
opinion, wrote asking Macdonald if he really wanted 
McDougall to win, and received an affirmative answer. 
Brown urged Macdonald to appeal to the electors in 
McDougall's behalf, and he did so. ''In order to pre- 
vent anarchy something had to be done," Macdonald 
wrote, "and a new coalition, which would attempt to 

86 



WILLIAM McDOUGALL 

settle the great constitutional question of parliamentary 
reform, was accordingly entered into." He was a 
strong party man and opposed to coalitions, he added, 
but no other course was left* 

Despite the heroic efforts of Macdonald and 
Brown, McDougall was defeated, and sought refuge in 
North Lanark. Subsequently he attended the London 
Conference, and returned to face a new difficulty in 
his own party. 

Brown had in 1865 retired from the coalition, 
which he held had performed the function for which 
it had come into being, namely, the passing of Con- 
federation in Canada, and had re-established himself as 
a critic of the administration. His magnetic and force- 
ful personality had ranged the Reform party solidly 
behind him, creating a formidable machine, which con- 
vened in Toronto on June 27, 1867. Macdonald had 
invited McDougall and Howland to remain in the new 
Cabinet which he was forming, wherewith to launch the 
Dominion on July 1 on the great journey of Con- 
federation. Six hundred delegates gathered in the Re- 
form convention which was to declare its attitude to- 
wards the new Government. McDougall and How- 
land attended by invitation, but the proceedings result- 
ed in their being read out of the party. McDougall 
was courageous in facing the crowded hall of noisy 
partisans, but Howland, as related by Col. Charles 
Clarke, who was present, shrank from the encounter. 
"William McDougall stood erect, folded his arms as 

*Sir John A. Macdonald: A Memoir, by Joseph Pope, Vol. I, 
P. 161. 

87 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

if defiant of the noisy throng and calmly awaited the 
threatened onslaught." McDougall's utterances on 
that occasion have stood the test of time. 

"We think the work of coalition is not done, but 
only begun," he said. "We think that British Columbia 
should be brought into the Confederacy, that the great 
Northwestern Territory should be brought in, that 
Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland should be 
brought in. I say that the negotiation of the terms upon 
which these Provinces are to be brought in is as im- 
portant, and that it is as necessary that the government 
in power should not be obliged to fight from day to day 
for its political existence, as when Confederation was 
carried up to the point we have now reached. Those 
who are of a different opinion will have an opportunity 
at the elections of saying so by condemning us who 
think it our duty to remain in the Government. I think 
the coalition ought not to cease until the work begun 
under Mr. Brown's auspices is ended." 

Mr. McDougall denied that Mr. Brown was en- 
titled to all the credit of the new constitution. Public 
men of all parties had worked for it. "We have a 
clear slate," he said — "a tabula rasa, there is the consti- 
tution — there is the machine — work it." 

Tragic disappointment marked McDougall's con- 
nection with the event which almost made him father 
of the Canadian Northwest. As a writer in The Globe 
in the late 'fifties, when Confederation was as yet quite 
remote, he had demanded the acquisition of the vast 
areas of Rupert's Land and the Northwest Territory. 

88 



WILLIAM McDOUGALL • 

In 1864 Lord Monck in opening Parliament said the 
condition of the great region was daily becoming a 
question of great interest. McDougall, then Minister 
of Crown Lands, in the ensuing debate said the Gov- 
ernment had concluded it was time to determine 
whether that region belonged to Canada or some other 
country. But as late as September, 1868, according to 
a subsequent letter to Howe, every other member of 
the Government but himself and Tilley was ''either in- 
different or hostile to the acquisition of the Northwest 
Territories." A crisis over the route of the Interco- 
lonial Railway proved the solvent. The Government 
acted, and the House adopted in December, 1867, Mc- 
Dougall's resolutions on the subject, opening with this 
memorable declaration: 

"That it would promote the prosperity of the 
Canadian people and conduce to the advantage of the 
whole Empire if the Dominion of Canada, constituted 
under the provisions of the British North America Act, 
1867, were extended westward to the Pacific Ocean." 

Speaking in support of his resolutions, McDougall 
said the union and consolidation of British America 
had been desired by British American statesmen for 
the last fifty years. It had been the dream of patriots 
and philosophers that our destiny was to be united as 
one great people, with a nationality extending from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific. There had been doubt as 
to the suitability of the soil and climate of the North- 
west Territory, but he was convinced it was adapt- 
ed to the production of the chief grains necessary for 
the support of human life, and that the climate was 

89 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

quite equal to that of Canada. If the territory were 
joined to Canada he looked to a rapid increase in pop- 
ulation, but if not the people of the Red River would 
soon look elsewhere. 

It followed naturally that McDougall should be 
one of the commissioners to carry out this undertaking. 
In October, 1868, he and Sir George Cartier were sent 
to England to negotiate with the Imperial Government 
and the Hudson's Bay Company for the purchase of this 
inland empire. During a considerable part of his ab- 
sence McDougall was seriously ill, but eventually, 
when negotiations between the Canadians and the Gov- 
ernor of the Company had reached a standstill, the 
Secretary for the Colonies, Earl Granville, under pres- 
sure from Mr. Gladstone, made a proposal which both 
sides accepted. As a consequence the Hudson's Bay 
Company relinquished its rights of domain on payment 
of £300,000, the retention of one-twentieth of the lands, 
and some 45,000 acres adjacent to the trading posts. 

Peace had been made with the great Company, 
but the Canadian Government was a long way from 
peace with the inhabitants of the Red River country. 
In the fall of 1869 McDougall was appointed the first 
Governor of the new territory, the transfer of which 
was expected to take place on December 1. The pop- 
ulation of the Red River settlement was then 12,000 or 
13,000, half of whom w^ere French half-breeds, chiefly 
engaged in hunting, trapping, trading and freighting. 
Naturally restless, they were fertile soil for the seeds 
of jealousy sown by Louis Riel. The appearance of 
Col. J. S. Dennis and a party of surveyors from Ottawa 

90 



WILLIAM McDOUGALL 

gave excuse for the mischief makers, and the condi- 
tions were distinctly dangerous when the new admin- 
istrator was due to take charge. 

Joseph Howe as Secretary of State preceded Mc- 
Dougall to Fort Garry, arriving in September, and 
it was the report of Postmaster Bannatyne afterwards 
that "Howe told him that he approved of the course of 
the half-breeds." Discontent increased, and by one of 
the accidents of history McDougall was not made 
aware of the real conditions. Late in October Howe 
left for the east, and as he crossed the Minnesota prairie 
he met and passed the imposing entourage of Mc- 
Dougall and his Council. It was in Howe's power 
to apprize McDougall of the real conditions, but he 
barely stopped to converse with the new Governor. 
Long afterwards McDougall, stung by this incident 
and its train of consequences in the years to come, wrote : 

"Howe knew that he had done me an ill turn and 
was ashamed to meet me." Howe's version was that 
a cold northwest wind was blowing in the face of 
McDougall and his children, and that "it would hare 
been barbarous to have stopped the cavalcade." 

McDougall passed on to Pembina, on the southern 
boundary of the Red River settlement, where he was 
met by a messenger hearing a letter signed by John 
Bruce, President, and Louis Riel, Secretary, of the 
Provisional Government, warning him not to enter the 
settlement without their permission. Weeks of vacilla- 
tion and bluffing followed, ending in McDougall, with 
no military force at his disposal, being forcibly escorted 

91 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

across the boundary, with no other course than to return 
home. 

Sir John Macdonald called the episode a "glorious 
fiasco," while defenders of McDougall said he had 
lacked the firm support of the Ottawa Government from 
the first. His own letters declare that he protested 
against operations by the surveyors until the transfer 
from the Company had been effected. 

On McDougall's way out he had another historic 
meeting when he encountered on the jprairie Donald 
A. Smith and Dr. Charles Tupper. The former was 
en route to Fort Garry in the official role of peace- 
maker, a duty for which he was well fitted by his years 
in the wilderness, and by his connection with the Hud- 
son's Bay Company. Tupper was on a private mission 
to bring back his daughter, Mrs. Cameron, whose hus- 
band was attached to the Governor's staff. 

Expelled from the Reform party by George 
Brown, unsupported and abandoned by Sir John A. 
Macdonald, a failure in his last great effort to redeem 
the new empire, McDougall's plight was indeed un- 
happy. On arrival at Ottawa he promptly resigned 
the office of Lieutenant-Governor of the Northwest 
Territory, and thereafter used much ink in seeking to 
defend and justify his course. His country had now 
little to give to a man whose rating in a constituency, 
never high, had sunk to zero. Ingratitude is ever 
the sin of the politician, and it is especially in opera- 
tion against the man who has nothing to give in return. 
For several years McDougall filled small positions for 

92 



WILLIAM McDOUGALL 

the federal and Ontario Governments, including a mis- 
sion to Britain regarding the fisheries, an immigration 
post in Scandinavia, and a commissionership on the 
Ontario boundary. In 1875 he was elected to the 
Ontario Legislature, but took no leading part and dis- 
appointed his friends. He was now recognized as a 
Conservative and opponent of the Government of 
Oliver Mowat, who had been one of his Reform col- 
leagues in the coalition Government of 1864. His at- 
titude toward the Legislature was indicated by his 
reference to it as an "enlarged county council." 

Late in the 'seventies he enjoyed a temporary re- 
vival in public life by throwing himself into the fight 
for the National Policy, and joined Macdonald in 
stumping the country. In 1878 he was elected to the 
House of Commons for Halton and sat until 1882. In 
1887, so swift were his changes, he was Liberal candi- 
date for Grenville, but was defeated. 

In the constructive period following Confedera- 
tion McDougall's logical mind and knowledge of 
affairs made him an asset to his leaders. Howe de- 
scribed him as "the ablest parliamentary debater I have 
ever heard," but he was intractable and could not get 
on with either Macdonald or Brown. Though he was 
one of the strongest speakers of the day, his instability 
lessened his influence, and on the stump he was some- 
times answered by quotations from his own previous 
speeches. 

McDougall's last years were spent in Ottawa, where 
as a counsel he had some slight success. Ill health, 
following his political disappointments, clouded his 

93 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

later life, and he died on May 29, 1905. He had 
now largely dropped from public sight, but his work 
deserves recognition not always accorded. He was con- 
sistently a nationalist in spirit and a nation builder. He 
had vision and a mastery of detail to shape great issues 
on the anvil of public discussion. 



94 



JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD 





*1 



JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD 



JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD 

(1812-1872) 

THE "Sandfield Macdonald surplus" was for almost 
a generation a monument to the principles and 
parsimony of the first Premier of Ontario. During its 
accumulation its fate was ever the subject of teasing 
and speculation by the Reform Opposition. In after 
years the Conservatives never failed to discount the 
savings of the Mowat Government by laying credit to 
the economies of John Sandfield Macdonald. How 
a surplus of three million dollars could be gathered in 
four years from the frugal revenues of that period will 
ever remain a mystery to the spenders of to-day. 
With Sandfield Macdonald, retrenchment was a reli- 
gion, and formed one of his vows on taking office. It 
was a justified and natural course in a new common- 
wealth barely emerged from pioneering, when food 
was plentiful but money was indeed scarce. 

Sandfield Macdonald was opposed to Confedera- 
tion until its passage was assured ; then, with the ready 
adjustment which marked his whole career, he accepted 
it and responded to Sir John A. Macdonald's call to 
form the first Government for Ontario. He was in 
public life almost continuously from 1841 till his death 
in 1872, was Premier of Canada for two years in the 
early 'sixties, and participated freely in the complex 
movements which preceded Confederation. By tem- 
perament he was unsuited to the compromises of office. 

97 
7 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Conscious of this fact, he early described himself as a 
"political Ishmaelite." In an era when political lines 
were indifferently defined, he frequently shifted his 
allegiance. In 1864 he moved the resolution in the 
Reform caucus requesting George Brown to join the 
coalition government to promote Confederation, but 
failed to recognize that this implied sanction of the 
movement. His advancement in public life was due to 
native ability — , courage and undoubted integrity, to 
popularity among the Highlanders of eastern Ontario, 
and to his adherence to his own opinions. He was 
caustic of speech and often irascible, though he was 
capable of geniality and craft in settling political pro- 
blems that confronted him. 

During most of his political life he was in opposi- 
tion to George Brown, and at times exhibited jealousy 
of the Reform leader. While driving from Guelph to 
Elora to attend a meeting after the formation of the 
Brown-Dorion Government, a party of Reform leaders, 
including Sandfield Macdonald, Dorion, Mowat, Hol- 
ton and others, were met by a reception committee en 
route. One of these. Col. Charles Clarke, who relates 
the story, made a general inquiry as to why Brown was 
absent. "Can't you do without Brown for a single 
night?" came the snappish reply from a voice within the 
carriage, and the voice belonged to Sandfield Mac- 
donald. 

In 1858 John A. Macdonald, in a courteous and 
kindly letter, asked Sandfield Macdonald to join his 
Cabinet, offering him a choice of portfolios. The reply 
was a brusque telegram, saying simply: "No go." 

98 



JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD 

In spite of this, Sir John Macdonald had a kindly 
feeling for his namesake, and in 1863, while battering 
the walls of the Sandfield Macdonald-Sicotte Govern- 
ment in its declining days, was at pains to state that he 
bore no personal feeling against the head of the admin- 
istration. The same kindly attitude — combined, it may 
be, with political sagacity — led Sir John to ask Sandfield 
Macdonald to form the first Cabinet in Ontario. The 
two new Premiers faced the electors in their respec- 
tive spheres in 1867, in what the Liberals resent- 
fully described as "hunting in couples." The one con- 
dition imposed by Sir John was that the new Ontario 
Cabinet should be a coalition government, which was 
to include two Conservatives, and three Reformers, in- 
cluding the Premier. This condition led to bitter 
attacks by the Reform press, which generally followed 
Brown's lead in his denunciation of the "Patent Com- 
bination," as Sandfield Macdonald named his own Cab- 
inet. 

The opposition of Brown and the bulk of the Re- 
form party drove Sandfield Macdonald substantially 
into the Conservative camp, and his administration suf- 
fered a raking fire from Edward Blake and Alexander 
Mackenzie, then in their prime as destructive critics. 
Sir John Macdonald was at this time in poor health, 
and his last recorded references to his protege before 
the latter's death were of sorrow and disappointment at 
the overthrow of the Government in Ontario, whose 
head refused to take advice. Writing to John Carling 
a few days after the Government had resigned in De- 
cember, 1871, Sir John said: 

99 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

"There is no use 'crying over spilt milk,' but it is 
vexatious to see how Sandfield threw away his chances. 
He has handed over the surplus, which he had not the 
pluck to use, to his opponents; and although I pressed 
him on my return from Washington to make a Presi- 
dent of the Council and a Minister of Education, which 
he half promised to do, yet he took no steps towards 
doing so."* 

John Sandfield Macdonald was a proud and fitting 
product of his environment. He was born at St. 
Raphael's, Glengarry County, Ontario, on December 
12, 1812, his father being a Highlander and a Roman 
Catholic. It was characteristic of Sandfield that he 
attempted to run away from home while yet a boy, and 
when his service in a Cornwall store led to gibes from 
other boys at the "counter-hopper," he quit the store 
and took up the study of law. His education at this 
time was most imperfect, but so keen was his mind that 
in eight years, or by 1840, he was admitted as an attor- 
ney. The idol of the settlement, he soon developed a 
profitable practice and in 1841 was elected to the 
Assembly. His popularity with his constituents was 
without limit, and they returned him again and again, 
either by acclamation or with sweeping majorities, and 
once drove his opponent from the riding. He was an 
irresistible campaigner in his own riding, and his 
methods were not without originality. For election- 
eering journeys he secured a flimsy old vehicle, tied up 

*Sir John A Macdonald : A Memoir, by Joseph Pope, Vol. II, 
P. 142. 

100 



JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD 

its wheels with cord, and went among his people say- 
ing: "I am one of yourselves." Though he lived in 
comfort for those days, the farmers respected him for 
his success, and listened gladly to his hesitating but 
pungent speech. He was a keen student of human 
nature, and once when leaving home for a few weeks 
enjoined the chief town "rough," whom everyone 
feared, to guard his premises. The trust reposed in him 
led the incorrigible to half kill several prowlers. Mac- 
donald's standing in Glengarry was heightened by ad- 
dresses to the electors in Gaelic, a form of appeal used 
to advantage by other public men in the Scottish settle- 
ments of Ontario up to recent years. 

This tall, slight, impulsive young lawyer, with the 
massive head, speedily attracted notice in the Assembly 
of the new Union of Canada. He seconded the Address 
in September, 1841, and immediately joined in the 
Reformers' fight against Sir Charles Metcalfe and the 
"Family Compact." In 1849 he became Solicitor-Gen- 
eral for Upper Canada. When the Hincks-Morin Gov- 
ernment was organized in 1851 the portfolio of Com- 
missioner of Crown Lands was offered to him, but he 
declined, seeking unsuccessfully the post of Attorney- 
General West. Although he was elected Speaker, he 
held a grudge against Hincks for the fancied slight, 
and in 1854 recorded an adverse vote on the Address, 
and thus forced Hincks to resign. 

An illustration of Macdonald's courage and in- 
dependence was his advocacy of non-sectarian educa- 
tion, and for opposing Separate Schools he incurred 
the denunciation of his Church. Though brought up 

101 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

a Roman Catholic, he was not a specially devout church 
member, and laughingly referred to himself as "an out- 
side pillar." 

Political alliances were often of unstable char- 
acter in those days of deadlock. Though Sandfield 
Macdonald and George Brown had opposed each other 
for years, in 1858 the feud was healed and Macdonald 
joined the Brown-Dorion Government as Attorney- 
General West. Brown and Macdonald soon separated 
and the gulf between them steadily widened. During 
the succeeding Cartier-Macdonald regime, Sandfield 
Macdonald alternately attacked the Government and 
the Opposition. When that Administration resigned in 
March, 1862, the Governor-General, much to the 
people's surprise, asked Sandfield Macdonald to form 
a Cabinet. The Macdonald-Sicotte Government was 
the result. 

The new Premier faced the abashed country with 
an extensive program. He called for the "double 
majority," a higher tariff for revenue purposes, re- 
trenchment in expenditures, a new insolvency law, and 
a new militia bill, but his silence on representation by 
population ofifended the Upper Canadians and led to 
vigorous attacks by George Brown and The Globe. 
This dissatisfaction grew as the months passed, and in 
the following May the Government went down under 
a double fire from John A. Macdonald on one side 
and George Brown on the other. 

Instead of resigning and retiring, the Premier 
came up with reconstruction. The expelled Ministers 
promptly joined the Opposition, and by March 21, 

102 



JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD 

1864, the Sandfield Macdonald-Dorion Government 
resigned without even a want of confidence motion. 
Macdonald's speech announcing the resignation of the 
Government possessed a wistful note. "The time has 
come," he said, after reciting their troubles, "when we 
ourselves should make a fair acknowledgment of the 
difficulties in which we are constituted and place our 
resignations, as we have unanimously done to-day, in 
the hands of His Excellency." 

"Hear, hear. It ought to have been done long 
ago," broke in D'Arcy McGee, cruelly. 

"If I have said anything with the appearance of 
malice," the Premier added, "I did not intend it in the 
sense in which it may have been understood. I owe 
no grudge against anyone on the other side. I desire, 
so far as I am concerned, to give and take, and shall 
be as ready to forget as to forgive injuries." 

Sandfield Macdonald's opposition to Confedera- 
tion was captious rather than profound. It is true he 
maintained that union ought not to be effective without 
submission to the people, but his various speeches dur- 
ing the debates of 186S were marked by petty criticism. 
The delegates from the Maritime Provinces, he said, 
had gone to Charlottetown to form their own union, 
and their deliberations were interrupted by the mem- 
bers of the Canadian Government, who ofifered them 
greater inducements and undermined the plans for 
which they had met. The minds of the people of Can- 
ada, he said, had been unhinged by the proceedings of 
the past year, and political parties had been demora- 

103 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

lized. "The Reform party," he declared, ''has become 
so disorganized by this Confederation scheme that there 
is scarcely a vestige of its greatness left. ... I 
never was myself an advocate of any change in our 
constitution; I believed it was capable of being well 
worked to the satisfaction of the people, and we were 
free from demagogues and designing persons who 
sought to create strife between the two sections." 

This disinclination to countenance change gives 
Sandfield Macdonald the color of a reactionary, de- 
spite his place in the Reform party during most of his 
public life. Sir James Whitney, who studied law in 
Macdonald's office, used to say that he was by habit 
of mind Conservative rather than Liberal.*' 

Although Sandfield Macdonald's comments on 
Confederation revealed a waspish habit of speech, 
there was much humor which the solemn 1865 Assem- 
bly enjoyed. He attacked the Coalition Government 
then in power, and said its record would be as bad as 
that of 1854. 

"Who moved that the honorable gentlemen repre- 
senting the Liberal party should go into the Govern- 
ment?" asked Alexander Mackenzie, significantly. 

"I found they were going — that the honorable 
gentlemen had full speed and that nothing could 
restrain them," was the evasive reply. 

Annexation talk was prevalent in the Maritime 
Provinces at this time, and Sandfield Macdonald used 
this fact in arguing against Confederation. If an 

*The Fathers of Confederation, bv A. H. U. Colquhoun, P. 151. 
(Glasgow, Brook & Co.) 

104 



JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD 

attempt were made to coerce them to join Canada, he 
said, they would be like a damsel who is forced to 
marry against her will, and who would in the end be 
most likely to elope with someone else. 

"Sir," he added with dignijfied emphasis, "it has 
been my misfortune to have been nearly nineteen years 
of my political life in the cold shades of Opposition, 
but I am satisfied to stay an infinitely longer period on 
this side of the House if that shall be the effect of my 
contending for the views which I have expressed." 

Even the enactment of Confederation was slow to 
mellow Macdonald's opposition, though he became at 
once a Provincial Premier. On July 23, 1867, speak- 
ing at Greenwood, in South Ontario, he said the new 
constitution "would not remedy the evils complained 
of in the past, but would increase them." 

Macdonald's political position was anything but 
clear from his addresses at this time. "If the Con- 
servatives expected I would yield to them," he said 
at Greenwood, "they were mightily mistaken." He 
said he was the most obstinate man in existence except 
George Brown, and yielded his opinions to nobody. 
He would like to see "John A." or anybody else dictate 
to him the course he would follow.* 

Late in August, in his nomination speech at Corn- 
wall, Sandfield Macdonald spoke of the peaceful revo- 
lution in Canada as evidence of the high enlightenment 
of the people and of their eminent fitness for self-gov- 
ernment. He sincerely hoped there might be no 
cause to regret the step taken. He had said in the last 

*Th^ Globe, July 26, 1867. 

105 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

session that "now that the change was accomplished, 
he would give all the aid he possibly could to the new 
constitution." 

When Sandfield Macdonald met the Legislature 
in the autumn of 1868 he startled the House with his 
radical program. He proposed and put through 
measures to abolish the property qualification for 
members of the Legislature to establish one-day elec- 
tions, increase free grants to settlers from 100 to 200 
acres, and to sweep away legislative grants to sectarian 
institutions. Problems of drainage, boundary awards 
and settlement of accounts with Lower Canada crowd- 
ed on the Government during these early days of 
Ontario. 

As the years passed, the Premier was growing 
petulant and at times gave offence to deputations by 
his outspoken utterances. A famous instance is when 
a party of men from Strathroy asked for a grant and 
were met by the insolent query, "What the h — has 
Strathroy done for me?" In the elections of March, 
1871, the Liberal Opposition made undoubted gains. 
They claimed to possess a majority, though the same 
claim was made by the Government. When the House 
met on December 7 there were eight vacancies, and 
Premier Macdonald played for time that these might be 
filled. The Opposition, however, saw their chance, 
and bombarded the Government with want of confi- 
dence motions. The Government were unequal to the 
struggle. Their railway subsidies were especially 
attacked, and four times they failed to secure a majority 

106 



JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD 

on divisions. Edward Blake, then Liberal leader, de- 
manded a declaration of policy with regard to the sur- 
plus, and said the country was crying out for its dis- 
posal. Alexander Mackenzie and Sandfield Macdon- 
ald indulged in recriminations as to whether the latter 
had betrayed the Reform party, and who was really 
the leader of that party. Macdonald said that he was 
"now and since 1867 had been denounced simply be- 
cause he organized his own party and manned his own 
ship." 

One of the Ministers, E. B. Wood, gave way 
under the storm and resigned, and finally on Decem- 
ber 19 the Premier announced that he and his col- 
leagues had handed in their resignations. Then, in a 
rather painful scene, as all recognized that the end of 
a long, useful public career had come, concurrently 
with physical weakness, the Premier "appealed to the 
honorable gentlemen opposite if he had said anything 
of a personal character in the heat of the debate which 
had given offence, he asked forgiveness now, as he had 
intended no offence and hoped that this would be ac- 
cepted as an apology, and if they were as ready to for- 
give as himself, it would be mutual." 

Edward Blake. succeeded to the Premiership of 
Ontario; Sandfield Macdonald retired to his home in 
Cornwall, where he died on June 1, 1872, his end 
hastened by the sting of defeat. He was buried among 
his beloved Highlanders. 

Sir James Whitney, as Premier of Ontario, speak- 
ing at the unveiling of a monument to John Sandfield 
Macdonald in Toronto, in November, 1909, said: 

107 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

"Mr. Macdonald was a man of great force of char- 
acter and individuality. These were his dominant 
characteristics. Once he formed an opinion or came 
to a conclusion, it was not easy to turn him aside. Con- 
sequently party limitations and conditions galled him, 
and as a rule he went his own way and voted as he 
thought proper. The position he occupied in the politi- 
cal world was indeed unique." 

On the same occasion, The Globe, writing of Mr. 
Macdonald, for so long a political opponent, said: "It 
fell to Mr. Macdonald's lot to organize the public ser- 
vice of this Province and give direction to its legisla- 
tion. How well he did this work is best shown by the 
fact that the lines he laid down and the precedents he 
set have never since been greatly departed from." 



108 



LOWER CANADA 

SIR GEORGE E. CARTIER 
SIR ALEXANDER T. GALT 
THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE 
SIR A. A. DORION 
CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN 



SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER 




SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTTER 



SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER 

(1814-1873) 

SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER sprang 
from stock whose roots were thrust deep in Canadian 
soil. His family, who, according to legend, were col- 
lateral descendants of Jacques Cartier, the discoverer of 
Canada in 1534, had lived in the St. Lawrence valley 
for nearly two centuries. Their later home by the 
Richelieu was on the great secondary highway of the 
ancient regime. Here settled in 1672 the officers of 
the Carignan-Salieres regiment, their light blue uni- 
forms and courtly manners soon to give place to the 
homespun and the neutral tints of a pioneer life. 
Nearby Beloeil lifts its shadowy mass above a wide, 
flat landscape, and the Richelieu gurgles complain- 
ingly over the rapids at Chambly as if in distress for its 
lost prestige. 

Such an atmosphere naturally created in a youth a 
strong love of French Canada, his homeland. Cartier 
was to Lower Canada what Brown was to Upper Can- 
ada, a leader devoted to the interests of his own people, 
and who upheld them even at the cost of alienating the 
neighboring Province. Brown roused Upper Canada 
into resentment against the French-Canadians. Cartier 
resisted Brown's demands for representation by popu- 
lation until deadlock and coalition raised both above 
party warfare and Confederation resulted. While 
Brown declared the union of 1841 a failure and 

113 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

demanded its repeal, Cartier as firmly defended it and 
insisted on the maintenance of equal representation. 

It is instructive to compare Cartier with a great 
French-Canadian of a later day. Cartier was fiery, 
impetuous, full of energy; Laurier is serene, dignified 
and quietly efficient. Cartier led his people to Confed- 
eration in face of powerful opposition, but supported by 
the clergy; Laurier led Quebec in 1896 for toleration, 
despite the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. 
Cartier plodded patiently through a codification of laws 
and promoted the construction of the Grand Trunk 
Railway; Laurier inspired a great immigration policy 
to fill Canada's waste spaces, and projected a second 
transcontinental railway to give breadth as well as 
length to the Dominion. Each was of Canadian stock of 
many generations, but each rose to the call of his time in 
his national and imperial duty. Cartier's day ended just 
as Laurier's sun appeared over the morning horizon. 

After bitterly resisting Brown's plan of representa- 
tion by population because, he said, it would be unjust 
to Lower Canada, Cartier joined hands with Brown in 
1864 for the greater union of the British North Ameri- 
can colonies. For his vision and statesmanship he 
paid the usual price demanded by smaller minds. He 
was accused of inconsistency, but he replied that he 
did not regret his earlier decision. He was taunted 
with sacrificing his race, but he responded that he was 
safeguarding their nationality and their religion. He 
was opposed by influential men of both races in his own 
Province, until almost alone among the influential men, 
he carried the banner of union. 

114 



SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER 

Fortunately for Confederation, it was favored by 
the Roman Catholic authorities. That most conserva- 
tive influence now rallied to the side of British institu- 
tions, as against the dangers of American republicanism, 
just as it had rejected the overtures of Washington and 
D'Estaing during the American Revolution. Without 
Cartier's influence Confederation could not have 
carried in Lower Canada, at least without delay, and 
without Lower Canada it could not have become a 
fact. Cartier was honestly a convert to union at the 
hand of A. T. Gait. That champion of Protestantism 
gave a powerful speech for union in 1858. Cartier, 
who soon thereafter become Premier of United Can- 
ada, was so impressed he asked Gait to join his Cabinet. 
Gait did so on condition that union would become a 
Cabinet question. Cartier kept his word, and in 1859 
made the first definite step towards union by despatch- 
ing a mission to England on the question, consisting 
of Gait, Ross* and himself. These delegates urged 
action by the Imperial authorities, but to their 
approaches the Maritime Provinces, save Newfound- 
land, responded that they were not yet ready to discuss 
the question. 

A network of electric and steam railways now 
pierces the alluvial valley of the Richelieu, once the 
highway of blood-thirsty Iroquois, and the home of 
Madeleine de Vercheres and her brave pioneer com- 
patriots. Walls of old stone windmills that creaked as 
they ground the habitants' grain still dot the landscape. 

*John Rose, (1818-71), President of Executive Council in the 
Cartier Administration, 1858, afterwards Speaker of the Senate. 

115 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

It was here at St. Antoine that George Etienne Cartier 
was born on September 6, 1814. His grandfather, Jac- 
ques Cartier, was a man of some means, an exporter of 
wheat to Europe. The home was called "The House of 
Seven Chimneys," and in it centred the social life of the 
community. Here gathered the thrifty, simple-living 
habitants and joined in folk songs, such as "A la Claire 
Fontaine," luring, if weird, compositions that prevail to 
this day in Quebec, and constitute the only Canadian 
folk songs worthy the name. Cartier, even in his later 
years, had a good singing voice, and his own contribu- 
tion to the music of his country, "O Canada, Mon 
Pays, Mes Amours," written at the age of twenty, is 
still a popular song in his Province. Cartier's father 
was a man of genial spirit and his mother a woman of 
intelligence and piety. They realized the advantages of 
education, and when George was in his tenth year he 
was sent to the Montreal College, where he remained 
for seven years, graduating in law in 1835. 

At this time Lower Canada was aflame with the 
agitation for responsible government which culmin- 
ated in the rebellion of 1837. The magnetic Papineau* 
was the hero of hundreds of eager young minds. 
Cartier was soon to fall under his spell and take 
up the campaign against the conduct of the Governor 
and the Executive Council. Popular demonstrations 
against the authorities began in the spring of 1837, even 
the sedate Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine declaring: 

*Louis Joseph Papineau, (1786-70), a tribune of the people in 
Lower Canada, whose agitation against executive tyranny resulted in 
rebellion in 1837, followed bj an inquiry and the granting of responsible 
government. 

116 



SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER 

"Everyone in the colony is discontented; we have 
demanded reforms and not obtained them; it is 
time to be up and doing." The Sons of Liberty had 
attracted the impetuous support of Cartier in the 1834 
elections, and he became the bard of the movement, 
composing the song, "Avant tout je suis Canadien" 
("Before all I am a Canadian"). It v^ill thus be seen 
that French-Canadian indifference to the outside world 
is of long duration. Cartier, however, lived to be a 
rigid constitutionalist and stout champion of British 
connection. Indeed, he never admitted his part in the 
rebellion of 1837 was due to antipathy to Britain, but 
rather to the tyrannical government which then pre- 
vailed in Canada. Dr. Wolfred Nelson became the 
militant head of the rebellion in Lower Canada. He 
was a Montrealer, of English origin, 6 feet 4 inches tall 
and generally popular. In the skirmishes on the 
Richelieu Cartier was his aide, and at the fight at St. 
Denis brought reinforcements across the river. When 
the uprising failed Cartier fled towards the American 
boundary and later to Plattsburg, N.Y., whence he 
returned a few years later when the "patriots" had been 
forgiven. 

A man of Cartier's ardent temperament was quick 
to attach himself to a worthy cause, and Papineau hav- 
ing ceased to ht a political factor he allied himself in 
the early 'forties with Lafontaine, who, with Robert 
Baldwin, was called on to form a government — a 
responsible government — in 1848. This was, as F. D. 
Monk has said, "the blessed day of the birth of free gov- 
ernment for our country, the true birth of our nation."* 

♦Speech at Montreal at laying of corner stone of Lafontaine mon- 
ument, June 24, 1908. 

117 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Cartier was now 34 years old, a successful lawyer, 
and a man of boundless energy. He had already 
worked on the fringe of politics, and in 1848 was 
elected to Parliament for the constituency of Vercheres. 
He entered the Assembly the next year, in time for the 
bitter debates over the Rebellion Losses Bill, ending 
in the burning of the Parliament buildings at Montreal 
on April 25. Cartier took little part in this struggle, 
and he was not one of the signers of the manifesto 
favoring annexation to the United States which was 
prepared that year by prominent Montreal men in 
their Gethsemane of political disappointment. Respon- 
sible government had been secured, and the next reform 
sought was the abolition of seigniorial tenure. Cartier 
supported Baldwin and Lafontaine in this cause, which 
finally triumphed in 1854. 

From then on, Cartier was almost steadily in office 
until his death. His law practice had given him a 
financial foundation and enabled him to live up to one 
of his beliefs that "property is the element which 
should govern the world." The all but universal suf- 
frage which prevailed in the United States was to him 
a matter of abhorrence. He joined the MacNab- 
T^che Government in 1855 as Provincial Secretary, and 
in 1857 became Lower Canada's leader in the Macdon- 
ald-Cartier Cabinet. During this period of prosaic 
service Cartier, while not himself a great jurist, carried 
through the codification of the civil laws and laws of 
procedure of Lower Canada, a work of several years 
and of the utmost value in a country of diverse races. 
When this task was completed in 1864 Cartier rose like 

118 



SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER 

a weary Titan and said: "I desire no better epitaph 
than this : *He accomplished the civil code.' " His 
effort to pass a militia bill providing for an active force 
of 500,000 to drill 28 days per year savored too much 
of militarism even in 1862, w^hen Canada was threat- 
ened from the warring republic to the south. The Gov- 
ernment was defeated on the issue and resigned. 

In the great transportation movement of the day, 
the building of the Grand Trunk Railway, Cartier took 
an aggressive part, corresponding to that of Sir Charles 
Tupper with the Canadian Pacific a generation later, 
or of Sir Wilfrid Laurier with the Grand Trunk Pacific 
in 1903. In 1852 he presented two acts in the Legisla- 
ture, one to incorporate the Grand Trunk Railway 
Company, to build between Toronto and Montreal, 
and the other to incorporate a company to construct 
a railway from opposite Quebec to Trois Pistoles, and 
for the extension of such railway to the eastern boundary 
of the Province. As early as 1846 he had been an 
ardent advocate of railway building, and in 1849 said, 
with vision : 

"There is no time to be lost in the completion of 
the St. Lawrence and Atlantic road if we wish to secure 
for ourselves the commerce of the West." 

During the construction of the Grand Trunk the 
company's credit on several occasions became danger- 
ously low, and Cartier led in the agitations for aid. 
For several years he was the company's legal adviser, 
but to criticism of this anomalous position for a Cabinet 
Minister he replied that the company was too poor 
to pay even a dividend. 

119 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Anyone familiar with lumbering operations in 
Canada knows the nature of a log jam. Timber 
dumped into a river floats down stream freely until 
it strikes an obstacle, when the logs pile up and make 
a blockade and seemingly hopeless confusion, only to be 
cleared when the "key log" is removed. The events 
leading up to the early 'sixties in Canadian politics 
may be likened to a log jam. Political cliques and 
the dominance of small issues, quarrels and jealousies 
between leaders, stagnation in public business — all these 
created a hopeless situation that called for decisive 
treatment. Men of outlook in all parties saw the solu- 
tion in a revolution which would bring about the union 
of the British American Provinces. Where was the 
"key log" of this confused situation? It was found in 
the idea of a coalition which was proposed and realized 
in 1864. George Brown had been pressing for years 
for representation by population, as Upper Canada was 
increasing much more rapidly than her sister Province, 
but to all these appeals Cartier turned a stony heart. 

"Has Upper Canada conquered Lower Canada?" 
he asked in 1858, and added, menacingly, "Lower Can- 
ada will adopt other political institutions before sub- 
mitting to such a motion as that of the member for 
Toronto" (Brown). In 1861 Cartier admitted that 
Upper Canada had 400,000 to 500,000 more population 
than Lower Canada, and if that progressive increase 
continued, it might be necessary to modify the nature of 
the union, but a year later, in a fiery reply to a similar 
demand from Upper Canada, he said he and John A. 
Macdonald were in agreement on the question and they 

120 



SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER 

"demanded the support of this House to maintain that 
equality which is the only foundation of the union." 

Cartier's obstinate rejection of Upper Canada's 
demands made the finding of the key log in the legis- 
lative jam all the more urgent. It came when Brown 
offered to join with any government to put union on 
the legislative program. Cartier, the "little corporal" of 
Lower Canadian politics, the defender of the most con- 
servative element in the two Canadas, the man who 
had gone to Ontario in 1863 to boldly challenge Brown 
and expound the French-Canadian viewpoint in the 
enemy's country — Cartier laid down his arms and 
entered into the negotiations which resulted in the 
coalition government. 

This resolution on the part of violent opponents 
to work together- for the common good, though an 
inspiring spectacle in the light of history, created 
astonishment and resentment among people who were 
too near great events to appreciate their significance. 
For the moment, however, the feeling of relief at the 
breaking of the deadlock overcame opposition, and the 
preliminaries to Confederation proceeded with des- 
patch. The memorandum sent by Cartier and his 
colleagues to the Colonial Secretary in 1858 asking for 
Imperial sanction of union was the first practical step. 
This had been followed by Brown's alternative plan 
to federalize United Canada by two or more local 
governments, with some joint authority to control 
matters common to both Provinces. When the issue 
was finally forced in 1864, Cartier's importance was 
derived largely from his power in Lower Canada, 

121 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

though in framing the resolutions he was a weighty fac- 
tor in securing a federal rather than a legislative union. 

Sir Richard Cartwright, speaking in Parliament 
in 1881, acknowledged the services of Cartier in these 
words : 

"I believe that, save one other man, he (Cartier) 
did more, he risked more, he sacrificed more to bring 
about Confederation than any other man in Canada. 
The only man who risked as much and sacrificed as 
much as he did was the late Hon. George Brown. To 
these two gentlemen, I believe, the Confederation of 
these Provinces was largely due, and I am bound to 
say that to both of them, in that respect, this country 
owes a great debt of gratitude." 

Cartier joined his Canadian colleagues in attend- 
ing the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences in 1 864. 
It is doubtful if any of them fully realized the full 
meaning of their mission as their steamer sailed into 
Charlottetown harbor that September morning, bear- 
ing Canadians to confer with the delegates from the 
Maritime Provinces. Before they returned, however, 
Cartier, speaking at a banquet, expressed the hope that 
there would result from their deliberations "a great con- 
federation which will be to the benefit of all and the dis- 
advantage of none." 

It is a part of the history of the period that the 
new idea was not quickly adopted, and, magnificent 
as was the vision of the eloquent promoters, years passed 
in the Maritime Provinces before union was sanctioned 
by the people. At the Halifax banquet a few days 
later Cartier reached a high note. 

122 • 



SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER 

"We can form a vigorous confederation whilst 
leaving the provincial governments to regulate local 
affairs," he said. "There are no obstacles which human 
wisdom cannot overcome. All that is needed to triumph 
is a strong will and a noble ambition. When I think 
of the great nation we could constitute if all the pro- 
vinces were organized under a single government, I 
seem to see arise a great Anglo-American power. The 
Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia repre- 
sent the arms of the national body embracing the com- 
merce of the Atlantic. No other will furnish a finer 
head to this giant body than Prince Edward Island, and 
Canada will be the trunk of this immense creation. 
The two Canadas extending far westward will bring 
into Confederation a vast portion of the western terri- 
tory." 

Though the Premier of Canada, Sir E. P. Tache, 
presided at the Quebec Conference, Cartier was a more 
influential figure from Lower Canada. In forming the 
resolutions, Cartier's master stroke, says John Boyd, 
his biographer, was in securing a federal instead of 
a legislative union, which would have swamped French- 
Canadian interests. His own view was for double 
chambers in the provinces, while Brown favored single 
chambers. As a consequence Ontario has a single 
chamber Legislature while Quebec followed Cartier's 
idea. 

The heavy artillery in the great Confederation 
fight in the Canadian Parliament in 1865 was soon 
brought into action. Macdonald, Brown and Cartier 
were early speakers, but they did not have it all their 

123 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

own way. Powerful debaters took the opposite yiew, 
though the union cause succeeded after seven weeks. 
Cartier's speech was one of his greatest efforts. He 
spoke in French and occupied three hours. He 
defended his opposition to representation by population 
and said perpetual political conflict would have fol- 
lowed its enactment. On the other hand, he did not fear 
for French-Canadian interests under Confederation, 
even though in a general legislature they would have 
a smaller representation than all other nationalities 
combined. He saw dangers in the war then going on 
in the United States, and said: "We must either have 
a confederation of British North America or be 
absorbed by the American union." The duties of 
defence, he pointed out, could not be freely carried 
out without a confederation. 

Then followed a declaration showing the strong 
loyalty of the man who less than 30 years before had 
borne arms against the Canadian authorities : 

"Is the confederation of the British North Ameri- 
can Provinces necessary to increase our power and to 
maintain the ties which attach us to the mother country? 
As far as I am concerned I do not doubt it." The rejec- 
tion of the temptations of Washington in 1775, he 
showed, was "because the French-Canadians understood 
that they would preserve intact their institutions, their 
language and their religion by adhesion to the British 
Crown." "If Canada," he added, "is still a portion 
of the British Empire, it is due to the conservative 
policy of the French-Canadian clergy." 

124 ..• 



SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER 

Cartier went on to say — and it is a statement worth 
recalling in later days of racial differences — that the 
clergy of Lower Canada were favorable to Confedera- 
tion. "Those of the clergy who are high in authority, 
as well as those in humbler positions, have declared for 
Confederation not only because they see in it all pos- 
sible security for the institutions which they cherish, 
but also because their Protestant fellow-countrymen, 
like themselves, are also guaranteed their rights." 

All was going well for the union cause, but 
shadows lay ahead. The trouble makers for Cartier 
were A. A. Dorion, L. H. Holton, L. S. Huntington, 
Christopher Dunkin and other influential Lower Can- 
adian members, from all wings of the Assembly, who 
strongly opposed Confederation. Dorion and Holton 
did not oppose the principle of union, but declared the 
time not yet ripe. Holton denounced the scheme as 
one which would "plunge the country into measureless 
debt, into difficulties and convulsions utterly unknown 
to the present constitutional system." While he would 
not despair of his country, he looked, if union carried, 
for "a period of calamity, a period of tribulation, such 
as it has never heretofore known." 

Henri Gustave Joly opposed the scheme because he 
believed it would be fatal to French-Canadian unity, 
while others accused Cartier of having surrendered 
to George Brown, who was pictured as the inveterate 
enemy of the race. H. E. Tachereau of Beauce, 
although elected a Government supporter, opposed the 
union as "a death-blow to our nationality, which was 
beginning to take root on the soil of British North 
America." 125 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Public meetings in the Province followed, in an 
endeavor to rouse opinion against union, and in these 
Dorion was joined by L. A. Jette, afterwards Lieuten- 
ant-Governor of Quebec, L. O. David, now a Domin- 
ion Senator, and others. The opposition only confirmed 
Cartier in his determination. After the resolutions had 
been adopted in both Houses he joined Macdonald, 
Brown and Gait in a mission to England to discuss 
Confederation, defence, reciprocity and other matters. 
In a speech in London, he said: 

"We desire the adoption of Confederation, not 
only to increase our prosperity and our strength, but 
also to be in a better position to participate in the 
defence of the British Empire." 

Another ministerial visit to England was necessary 
at the end of 1866 to frame the British North Ameri- 
ca Act, and on their return in 1867 Cartier in a speech 
at Montreal made public the important fact that the 
Canadian constitution had been approved and con- 
firmed by the British Parliament in the form in which 
it was drawn by the delegates. This represented a long 
step in colonial self-government. Cartier said: 

" 'The Canadians,' said the English Ministers, 
'come to us with a finished constitution, the result of 
an entente cordiale between themselves, and after 
mature discussion of their interests and their needs. 
They are the best judges of what will be suitable to 
them. Do not change what they have done; sanction 
their federation.' Yes, that is the spirit in which' 
England received our demand. We required her sanc- 

126 



SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER 

tion; she gave it, without hesitation, without wishing 
to interfere in our work."* 

During a visit to England in 1868 Cartier supple- 
mented this declaration in a speech at the Royal Col- 
onial Institute when he said: 

"It is a great source — I will not say of pride — but 
a great source of encouragement, to the public men who 
then took part in that great scheme, that it was adopted 
by the English Government and by the English Parlia- 
ment, without, I may say, a word of alteration." 

When Confederation honors were bestowed in 
1867 Cartier declined to accept the proffered C. B., 
declaring it to be insufficient and therefore a slight to 
him as a representative of one of the two great Provinces 
of Confederation. Considerable feeling was aroused in 
Quebec, and shortly afterwards, on the intervention of 
Dr. Tupper, Cartier was made a baronet. The irony of 
it was that he had to borrow the money needed to pay 
the fees in connection with the decoration. 

The elections of 1867 confirmed Quebec in her 
acceptance of Confederation. Opponents of union main- 
tained their campaign before voting, but Cartier was 
strongly supported by the Roman Catholic ecclesiastics, 
both high and low, who threw the scale, as on previous 
occasions, in favor of British rule and against any 
danger of republicanism. Out of 65 seats in the Pro- 
vince the anti-unionists secured only 12. Cartier was 
now Minister of Militia and Defence in the first Con- 
federation Cabinet, and was one of Sir John A. Macdon- 
ald's most trusted colleagues. He was a potent force 

♦Sir George Etienne Cartier, Bart, by John Boyd, P. 275. 

127 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

in the construction of the Intercolonial Railway, that 
much delayed highway, and contended for the adop- 
tion of the northern, or Bay de Chaleur, route, both for 
commercial and military reasons. His organization 
of the Canadian defence prevailed, with additions, 
until the outbreak of the great war in 1914. 

Cartier accompanied William McDougall, a 
colleague, to England in 1868 when the negotiation for 
the purchase of the Hudson's Bay territory, now com- 
prising the great prairie Provinces of the West, from 
the Hudson's Bay Company, was carried out success- 
fully. Owing to McDougall's illness, the bulk of the 
work fell on Cartier. 

This was one of the last of the French-Canadian 
leader's great undertakings. He had much to do with 
the legislation connected with the Pacific Railway 
scheme in 1872, and introduced the bill providing for 
grants of 50,000,000 acres of land and $30,000,000 in 
cash, but before it was implemented he had broken 
down with an attack of Bright's disease and sought 
treatment by London specialists. In the election of 
1872 Cartier suffered a crushing defeat by L. A. Jette, 
a rising young French-Canadian, whom he flouted by 
saying his conduct was "bold and foolhardy." 
Cartier's aggressiveness on this occasion, his trouble 
with the Church over a minor internal matter, and dis- 
satisfaction over his supposed desertion of the Catholics 
of New Brunswick, when non-sectarian schools were 
established there, brought disaster. In the hour of his 
humiliation he was forced to accept the seat of Proven- 

128 



SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER 

chcr in Manitoba at the hand of Louis Riel, the rebel 
leader of two years previous. 

Cartier reached London in October, 1872, and was 
encouraged to believe he would soon recover. His let- 
ters to Sir John A. Macdonald and others were full of 
hope and even defiance. The old lion was cornered but 
not cowed. In April the Pacific Scandal storm broke at 
Ottawa, and its thunder and lightning reached the sick 
room in London. Cartier was politically seriously com- 
promised by the charges. He had been an intimate of, 
and intermediary with, Sir Hugh Allan, head of the 
railway syndicate, who, as was proved in the inquiry, 
had contributed $350,000 to the Conservative campaign 
fund, and thousands of it had gone to Cartier's war 
chest, though his personal honesty was never called in 
question. He could not leave for Ottawa ; he could not 
meet the charges in London. He was marooned and 
condemned. He died on May 20, 1873, a broken- 
hearted man. 

Among Cartier's associates there was genuine sor- 
row at his passing, but party feeling at the climax of 
the scandal charges prevented crocodile tears from his 
political opponents. His body was brought to Montreal 
and given an imposing public funeral, after which his 
former colleagues had to return to their own defence. 

There was pathos in the death of Cartier. He had 
given his life to the service of his country. For thirty- 
five years he had been in politics. Much of that time 
he had labored incessantly, at high pressure for long 
hours. Nature had gifted him richly for administra- 
tive work, and leisurely colleagues were ever ready to 

129 

9 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

use him as a pack-horse. His body was the embodiment 
of nervous force and energy, his expression was one of 
vivacity and animation. The "little man in a hurry" 
was of medium height, strong and robust, of ruddy com- 
plexion, fastidious in dress and commonly wearing the 
Prince Albert coat affected by public men of his day. 
His courage was unbounded, his temperament dominat- 
ing and absolute. 

His wife, a daughter of Edward Raymond Fabrc, 
of Montreal, a woman of piety and devotion to her 
family of three daughters, survived until 1898. 

Cartier stands as the representative of the masses 
of Lower Canada at the critical hour of Confedera- 
tion. A Catholic and strong champion of his race, he 
was tolerant and even popular with Protestants. His 
vision marked him a nation builder, his strategy 
enhanced his power as a parliamentarian, his faithful 
performance of prosaic routine earned the gratitude of 
a nation in its birth throes. 



130 



SIR ALEXANDER T. GALT 





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B^^^^H^^^HHi ^^Mi£ 





SIR ALEXANDER T. GALT 



SIR ALEXANDER T. GALT 

(1817-1893) 

SIR ALEXANDER TILLOCH GALT was a 
reservoir of ideas, a peerless exponent of finance and 
the first man to force Confederation into practical poli- 
tics in Canada. As a father of protection, he penned a 
declaration of fiscal independence in 1859 which is one 
of the country's steps in self-government. As the first 
Canadian High Commissioner in London, he blazed 
a new Imperial trail and proclaimed sentiments of 
loyalty which effaced the annexation ideas of his early 
manhood. Throughout his public career he was the 
champion of the Protestants of Quebec, and when he 
felt their rights were prejudiced he resigned as Minister 
of Finance in 1866. His constructive ability com- 
manded general admiration, but fickleness and indepen- 
dence robbed him of the fame and influence he de- 
served. 

Gait's portly, erect form was familiar for a 
quarter century of public life, during which he coun- 
selled various leaders and supported different min- 
istries, but he never lost the respect of the people. 
His was the generous, amiable personality of a robust, 
healthy man. He was a sincere and earnest speaker, 
with a well-modulated voice and an amazing mastery 
of facts, but he was not an orator. His diction was 
simple, without flowers of eloquence, but was rather the 
cold, colorless language of the economist. 

133 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Gait was essentially a practical man in politics. 
He left a successful business and put at his country's 
service a financial expertness rare in public life. Wc 
think of Quebec as old and long settled, but Gait played 
a large part in colonizing the Eastern Townships in 
the 'thirties and 'forties of last century. His father, 
John Gait, the Scottish novelist, from whom he inher- 
ited his rich mental qualities, had preceded him in 
the land business, being the founder and Commissioner 
of the Canada Company, which colonized large tracts 
of the "Queen's Bush" between Toronto and Lake 
Huron and founded Guelph and Goderich. 

Alexander Gait was born in London on September 
6, 1817, and came to Canada in 1834, as a junior clerk 
in the British American Land Company at Sherbrookc. 
He rose step by step until in 1844 he became Commis- 
sioner of the Company. He found its affairs in con- 
fusion, and by his ability and understanding brought 
them to order and prosperity. His business success 
attracted notice and in 1849 he was elected to Parlia- 
ment for the County of Sherbrooke. He sat through 
the stormy session of 1849, when the Parliament 
Buildings in Montreal were burned, after the passage 
of the Rebellion Losses Bill. This seemed to sicken 
young Gait of politics for the time, for he retired to 
private life. 

It was in 1849 that a group of influential Lower 
Canadians issued a manifesto favoring annexation to 
the United States. A. T. Gait was one of the signers 
of this document. It is easy now to condemn such an 
extreme view of the country's future, but Canadian 

134 



SIR ALEXANDER GALT 

prosperity was then endangered by the adoption of free 
trade by Britain in 1846, and Canadian pride was hurt 
by the indifference of British statesmen to their colonies. 
It was then the fashion in Britain to say the colonies 
cost more than they were worth. Gait was influenced, 
too, by a desire to secure relief from the domination 
of the Catholic Church. 

During the next four years Gait became President 
of the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Ry., extricated it from 
its difficulties by amalgamation with the Grand Trunk 
Ry., and participated in the construction of the Grand 
Trunk from Toronto to Sarnia. From 1852 to 1859 
he was a director of the G.T.R. By 1853 he was back 
in Parliament, where he found scope for his talents in 
financial, trade and commercial questions. Upon the 
fall of the Brown-Dorion Government in 1858, Sir 
Edmund Head, impressed by Gait's striking speech 
that year in favor of a federal union, asked him to form 
a Cabinet, but, realizing that his independent course, 
while spectacular, left him without a following, he 
declined. George E. Cartier, who was called on at 
Gait's suggestion, took Gait as Minister of Finance, 
promising to adopt federal union as a Cabinet policy. 
The great issue of the time thus became a practical one. 

Before tracing more in detail Gait's contribution 
to Confederation, it is instructive to note his services 
in forming Canada's financial policy. His first duty 
in taking office in 1858 was to restore the shattered 
finances of United Canada. Revenues were low and 
expenses high. It was his opportunity. Cayley,* his 

♦William Cayley, Inspector-General of Canada, 1845-48 and 1854-58. 

135 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

predecessor, had been induced by Isaac Buchanan of 
Hamilton, the leading figure in the Association for the 
Promotion of Canadian Industry, to give protection in 
the tariff to several manufacturing industries. Gait 
went farther in 1859 and raised the tariff from 15 to 
20 per cent, on unenumerated articles. The object of 
this tariff, he told the House on March 18, v^as "to 
encourage the industrial portion of the community and 
to equally distribute the taxes necessary for revenue 
purposes." He ridiculed the idea that British connec- 
tion would be endangered, but before many months his 
policy had made trouble in the old country and in the 
United States. An American commission reported in 
1860 that they were strongly impressed with the lack of 
good faith shown towards the United States by Gait's 
policy, and Edward Porritt avers that feeling was so 
strong that even without the Alabama case, the St. 
Albans raid and other episodes, the reciprocity treaty 
would not have survived a day longer than it did.* 

If the United States was angry and retaliatory, 
the mother country was sullenly acquiescent. Sir 
Edmund Head, in forwarding the new tariff to the 
Colonial Secretary, was somewhat apologetic. 

"I must necessarily leave the representatives of the 
people in Parliament," he wrote, "to adopt the mode of 
raising supplies which they believe to be most beneficial 
to their constituents." 

Merchants of Sheffield protested against the new 
tariff and asked the British Government to discounten- 

*Sixty Years of Protection in Canada, by Edward Porritt (Mac- 
millan Co.) P. 144. 

136 



SIR ALEXANDER GALT 

ance it as "a system condemned by reason and experi- 
ence." The Duke of Newcastle, in forwarding the 
protest, regretted that the law had been passed, but 
said he would probably have no other course than to 
signify the Queen's assent to it. The Duke was right, 
as he was pointedly told by Gait in the return mail. 

"The Government of Canada," Gait wrote, "acting 
for its Legislature and people, cannot, through those 
feelings of deference which they owe to the Imperial 
authorities, in any measure waive or diminish the right 
of the people of Canada to decide for themselves both 
as to the mode and extent to which taxation shall be im- 
posed. . . . Self-government would be utterly 
annihilated if the views of the Imperial Government 
were to be preferred to those of the people of Canada. 
It is, therefore, the duty of the present Government dis- 
tinctly to affirm the right of the Canadian Legislature 
to adjust the taxation of the people in the way they deem 
best — even if it unfortunately should happen to meet 
with the disapproval of the Imperial Ministry. Her 
Majesty cannot be advised to disallow such acts unless 
her advisers are prepared to assume the administration 
of the affairs of the colony irrespective of the views of 
its inhabitants." 

Another important achievement by Gait at this 
time was the introduction into Canada in 1858 of the 
decimal currency system, which replaced the pounds, 
shillings and pence of the motherland. 

There had been discussion of union of the British 
American Provinces for years, but Gait forced the issue 

137 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

by his speech in the Assembly at Toronto on July 6, 
1858. He then outlined roughly the plan of union 
which was subsequently adopted. He declared that 
unless a union was formed the Province of Canada 
would inevitably drift into the United States. He saw 
merits in the union of the two Canadas, which had 
organized municipal government, settled the clergy 
reserves and seigniorial tenure questions, and made the 
Legislative Council elective. Yet the present Govern- 
ment, the strongest for several years, were unable to 
carry their measures. The present system could not go 
on, it was necessary to change the constitution, to adopt 
the federal principle. Questions of religion and race 
now promoted disunion. If they adopted the federal 
principle each section of the union might adopt what- 
ever views it regarded as proper for itself. 

Canada, he said, looking to the future, was the 
foremost colony of the foremost empire of the world. 
But in five months they had disposed of measures that 
should have been passed in as many weeks. They had 
not been able to take up the great subject of the Hudson's 
Bay Company, and unless they extended themselves east 
and west and made one great northern confederation 
they must be content to fall into the arms of the neigh- 
boring federation. Was it nothing to them to control 
all this Hudson's Bay territory? Such a thing was never 
known before that a continent ten times as large as 
Canada was oflfered to a state. He desired to see a wide 
and grand system of federation for the British North 
American colonies. He believed a universal desire pre- 
vailed that we should be no longer a colony — that wc 

138 



SIR ALEXANDER GALT 

were fit for the dignity of nationhood. And to such an 
aspiration no bar was offered by the Imperial authority. 
He had no proclivities for office, he said. He only 
wished to see the necessary policy for the country 
adopted, and he would give his best support to any 
government who would carry out those principles. 

Gait presented a resolution favoring federation, in 
part as follows : 

"It is therefore the opinion of this House that the 
union of Upper with Lower Canada should be changed 
from a legislative to a federative union by the subdivi- 
sion of the Province into two or more divisions, each 
governing itself in local and sectional matters, with a 
general legislature and government for subjects of 
national and common interest." 

He also proposed : 

"That a general confederation of the Provinces of 
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and 
Prince Edward Island with Canada and the western 
territories is most desirable and calculated to promote 
their several and united interests by preserving to each 
Province the language control, management of its pecu- 
liar institutions and of those internal matters respecting 
which differences of opinion might arise with other 
members of the confederation, while it will increase 
that identity of feeling which pervades the possessions 
of the British Crown in North America." 

Strange to say, this clear-cut program attracted 
little notice at the time. George Brown said he pre- 
ferred representation by population, but failing that he 
would take federal union of the Canadas. A little later 

139 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Gait entered Cartier's Cabinet, taking with him the 
policy of federation. Cartier, in announcing his 
Cabinet's program, gave definite form to the policy 
when he declared : 

"The expediency of a federal union of the British 
North American Provinces will be anxiously consid- 
ered, and communications with the Home Government 
and the Lower Provinces entered into forthwith on 
this subject." 

At this time the climax of the deadlock had not 
been reached, but political rivalries and racial jealousies 
were fast bringing about an impasse. There were able 
men in plenty in public life, but the inequalities between 
Upper and Lower Canada were causing ill-feeling and 
anxiety, with no solution in sight. Cartier implemented 
his promise, and with Gait and John Ross went to 
England. Their memorandum to the Colonial Secre- 
tary, Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, urged confederation 
on grounds peculiar to Canada and considerations 
affecting the interests of the other colonies and the 
whole empire. It referred to the demand for increased 
representation for Upper Canada, which had resulted 
in "an agitation fraught with great danger to the peace- 
ful and harmonious working of our constitutional sys- 
tem, and consequently detrimental to the progress of 
the Province." The memorandum set forth the desir- 
ability of uniting Canada, the Maritime Provinces and 
Newfoundland, and added : 

"The population, trade and resources of all these 
Provinces have so rapidly increased of late years, and 
the removal of trade restrictions has made them in so 

140 



SIR ALEXANDER GALT 

great a degree self-sustaining, that it appears to the 
Government of Canada exceedingly important to bind 
still more closely the ties of their common allegiance to 
the British Crown, and to obtain for general purposes 
such an identity of legislation as may serve to consoli- 
date their growing powers, thus raising in the British 
Empire an important federation on the North Ameri- 
can continent." 

Little encouragement followed this formal appeal. 
The Colonial Secretary showed no enthusiasm for the 
union, and writing a month later said the Imperial Gov- 
ernment could go no further at present, as they had 
received a reply on the subject from only one Province. 

Other events were to move the union scheme for- 
ward, and Mr. Gait found his opportunity first as a 
diplomat in arranging the coalition and afterwards as 
a Canadian delegate to the Charlottetown Conference. 
He was one of the Ministers to sail on the Queen Vic- 
toria, the ship of destiny freighted with the inarticu- 
lated hopes of a nation yet to be. Gait's unique powers 
as an exponent of finance were never used to better 
advantage than here. At that momentous gathering, 
called to discuss "the reunion of the Maritime Pro- 
vinces," as Tupper had aptly phrased it. Gait made an 
impressive address. 

"The financial position of Canada," says John 
Hamilton Gray, the delegate-historian of the Confeder- 
ation Conference, of Gait's speech, "was contrasted with 
the other Provinces, their several sources of wealth, 
their comparative increases, the detrimental way in 

141 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

which their conflicting tariffs operated to each othcr*s 
disadvantage, the expansion of their commerce, the ex- 
pansion of their manufactures, and the development of 
the various internal resources that would be fostered by 
a further increase of trade and a greater unity of inter- 
est, were pointed out with great power by Mr. Gait in a 
speech of three hours. Statistics were piled upon sta- 
tistics, confirming his various positions and producing 
a marked effect upon the convention. It might almost 
be said of him on this occasion as was once said of Pope, 
though speaking of figures in a different sense : 

" 'He lisped in numbers — for the numbers came.' "* 

From now on, for the next two years, Gait was a 
virile leader in promoting the cause of union. At the 
Quebec Conference he played an important part in 
finally adjusting the financial relations of the Provinces 
under the union scheme, a point which at one time 
brought deadlock and almost wrecked the convention. 
At a banquet during the Quebec Conference Gait pro- 
phesied great prosperity as a result of Confederation, 
pointing to the enormous free trade area of the United 
States as an object lesson in promoting commerce. 

At Sherbrooke, on November 23 of the same year, 
in an important speech. Gait defended the union of 1841 
as far as it had gone, and held that the concession of 
representation by population would be attended by a 
dangerous agitation. The Provinces of British North 
America, if united, he said, would form a power on the 
northern half of the continent "which would be able 
to make itself respected, and which he trusted would 

^Confederation, by John Hamilton Gray, P. 31. 

142 



SIR ALEXANDER GALT 

furnish hereafter happy and prosperous homes to many 
millions of the industrial classes from Europe now 
struggling for existence." 

"By a union with the Maritime Provinces," he 
added, "we should be able to strike a blow on sea, and, 
like the glorious old mother country, carry our flag in 
triumph over the waters of the great ocean." If Gait 
meant the creation of a Canadian navy or a Canadian 
wing of the British navy, history has shown him too 
optimistic on that one point. In this speech Gait also 
upheld the rights of the minority in education in all 
Provinces, rights which he said must be protected in 
the new constitution. 

Mr. Gait made one of the important speeches dur- 
ing the Confederation debates in 1865, when in his thor- 
ough manner he discussed the economics of the situa- 
tion. He quoted the trade returns of the various Pro- 
vinces in 1863 as follows: Total exports and imports — 
Canada, $87,795,000 or $35 per head; New Brunswick, 
$16,729,680, or $66 per head ; Nova Scotia, $18,622,359, 
or $56 per head; Prince Edward Island, $3,055,568 
or $37 per head; Newfoundland $11,245,032 or $86 
per head; a total of $137,447,567. These figures 
compared with the total trade of the Dominion of Can- 
ada of over Wo billion dollars in 1916 — much of it, it 
is true, a forced development from the war — are a 
flashlight on the success which has followed Confeder- 
ation, at least in that direction. Gait foresaw much 
of this growth and in a passage in this speech gave 
rein to his imagination : 



143 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

"Possessing as we do in the far western part of 
Canada perhaps the most fertile wheat-growing tracts 
on this continent, in central and eastern Canada facili- 
ties for manufacturing such as cannot anjrwhere be sur- 
passed, and in the eastern or Maritime Provinces an 
abundance of that most useful of all minerals, coal, as 
well as the most magnificent and valuable fisheries in 
the world; extending as this country does over two 
thousand miles, traversed by the finest navigable river 
in the world, we might well look forward to our future 
with hopeful anticipation of seeing the realization not 
merely of what we have hitherto thought would be the 
commerce of Canada, great as that might become, but 
to the possession of Atlantic ports which we should 
help to build to a position equal to that of the chief 
cities of the American continent." 

The spade work for Confederation in Canada had 
now been done, though much remained as yet to recon- 
cile Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Gait had his 
part in the mission to London in 1865. All was then 
smooth, but in August, 1866, he startled the country by 
resigning as Finance Minister on the determination of 
the Government not to proceed with the Lower Canada 
education bill. This bill was promoted by the Protes- 
tant minority of Lower Canada, and the Roman Catho- 
lic majority would not permit it to pass unless a simi- 
lar bill with reference to the Roman Catholic minority 
in Upper Canada was also enacted. John A. Mac- 
donald, in voicing the Government's position, said the 
policy advocated for the minorities would give the 

144 V . 



SIR ALEXANDER GALT 

Maritime Provinces an unfortunate spectacle of two 
Houses divided against themselves. "Instead of a 
double majority," he said, "we should have a double 
minority." 

Notwithstanding his resignation from the Cabinet, 
Gait's abilities were requisitioned for the final stages of 
the Confederation bill, and he accompanied the Min- 
isterial delegation to England in the fall of 1866 to 
draft the B. N, A. Act. He entered the first Confedera- 
tion Cabinet as Minister of Finance and, like Cartier, 
revolted at the proffered C. B. as insufficient recogni- 
tion for his services, and was subsequently, in 1869, 
made a K. C. M. G. His tractability was of short dura- 
tion. In November, 1867, he resigned from the 
Cabinet, and there has always been an air of mystery 
as to the cause. Sir John Rose, who succeeded him, 
told friends that he found the business of the Depart- 
ment in ragged shape, so far as preparing for the next 
Budget was concerned, a fact which might indicate 
irresolution for some time. The correspondence sub- 
sequently made public shows that he resented the refusal 
of his colleagues to go to the rescue of the Commercial 
Bank, in which he was heavily interested. His letter 
of November 3 to Sir John Macdonald affirms his 
decision to "withdraw from official life until at least 
I have had the opportunity of putting my affairs in 
something like order."* 

The portfolio of Finance was again offered him in 
1869 if he would renounce his views in favor of the 
independence of Canada, but he declined. Gait then 

♦Sir John A. Macdonald: A Memoir, by Joseph Pope, Vol. II, P.5. 

145 

10 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

went into opposition to Sir John Macdonald, who recip- 
rocated the opposition with the utmost heartiness. 
Writing to Sir John Rose on February 23, 1870, Sir 
John said : 

"Gait has come out, I am glad to say, formally in 
opposition and relieved me of the difficulty connected 
with him. . . . He is now finally dead as a Can- 
adian politician." 

Gait was, however, far from dead and buried. In 
1876, in a letter to Senator James Ferrier, he criticized 
Macdonald for his connection with the Pacific Scandal. 
The Conservative chieftain, then in defeat and dejec- 
tion, expressed the anger of a man wounded in the house 
of a friend, and responded half-heartedly to approaches 
for a renewal of friendship. A year later the Macken- 
zie Government used Gait's diplomacy with good result 
on the Fisheries Commission at Halifax, and in 1880 
Sir John Macdonald made him the first Canadian 
High Commissioner to Great Britain, declaring him to 
be "the most available man for the position." To 
Gait, however, the post was a disappointment, as he felt 
he was little more than an emigration agent. He 
resigned in 1883. In a speech in London on January 
25, 1881, Gait admonished the old country for not enter- 
ing upon a policy of settling her people in the Domin- 
ions. His words have a strange flavor of the year 1917. 

"I speak now," he said, "not of Canada alone, but 
of her sister colonies as well, when I affirm that within 
the limits of the British Empire everything required 
by civilized man can be produced as well as in the whole 
of the rest of the world; while if facility of access be 

146 



SIR ALEXANDER GALT 

taken into account Canada stands on more than an equal 
footing with her great riral, the United States. . . Can- 
ada is now doing her part in the effort to colonize 
British North America, and it rests with the Govern- 
ment and the people of England to do theirs." 

Gait's last ten years of life were spent in compara- 
tive retirement, interrupted by business investments in 
coal lands in western Canada. His death in Montreal 
on September 19, 1893, from cancer cvf the throat, fol- 
lowed a long illness. 

Sir Alexander Gait's death drew praise from far 
and wide for his services in shaping the young Canadian 
nation. He brought to the councils of State a clear 
mind, an alert business judgment, and an indepen- 
dent character. He left the memory of a sturdy, lovable 
man whose services were generous and unselfish, and 
who was too big to be controlled for sinister political 
purposes. 



147 



THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE 




THOMAS D'ARCY IVIcGEE 



THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE 

(1825-1868) 

MANY and various types of strong men were neces- 
sary to the attainment of Confederation. A 
political crusader like Brown, a human lubricant like 
J. A. Macdonald, an intellectual diplomat like Gait, 
or a stern fighter like Tupper could not alone accom- 
plish this peaceful evolution. Thomas D'Arcy McGee 
was a type apart in the select company of the Fathers. 
He was young Ireland incarnate, and brought to his 
service in Canada the mind of a poet and the ideas of 
a mellowed revolutionary. He carried his enthusiasm 
for union from province to province until his eloquent 
appeals fired the lagging decisions of men of less vision, 
and Confederation became inevitable. 

McGee's life was a strange vindication of the Bri- 
tish Government he was born to hate. He was raised 
in an atmosphere which "saw red" at the mere mention 
of England. He carried this hatred to the United 
States and later settled in Canada, where he lived and 
died a sedate constitutionalist and loyal citizen. His 
martyrdom was the fruit of his own development, but 
were he consulted he no doubt would have died gladly 
for the principles he then held so dear. When warned 
that the Fenians were after him, he replied, "Threat- 
ened dogs live long." His death by a Fenian assassin in 
1868 filled with remorse a land still smarting from the 
invasion of two years before, and enhanced the love in 

151 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

which he was held for his unselfish services for Con- 
federation. 

Though McGee's early record in the Young Ire- 
land party, with his flight during the outbreak of 1848, 
was well known, he had removed the stain by his 
ardent patriotic endeavors. From his arrival in Canada 
in 1857, after an early manhood in journalism in the 
Eastern States, he had constantly advocated the union 
of the British Provinces. He travelled widely, lectur- 
ing in his captivating tones and polished oratory on top- 
ics ranging from Columbus, Moore, and the American 
Revolution, to the various aspects of Confederation. 
Others might declaim the political and economic advan- 
tages of union; McGee's pictures glowed with the 
warmth of a true Hibernian imagination. 

"I look to the future of my adopted country with 
hope, but not without anxiety," he said in the Legisla- 
tive Assembly soon after election. "I see in the not 
remote distance one great nationality, bound like the 
shield of Achilles, by the blue rim of ocean. I see it 
quartered into many communities, each disposing of its 
internal affairs, but all bound together by free institu- 
tions, free intercourse and free commerce. I see within 
the round of that shield the peaks of the western moun- 
tains and the crests of the eastern waves, the winding 
Assiniboine; the five-fold lakes, the St. Lawrence, the 
Ottawa, the Saguenay, the St. John and the Basin of 
Minas. By all these flowing waters, in the valleys they 
fertilize, in all the cities they visit in their courses, I 
see a generation of industrious, contented, moral men, 
free in name and in fact — men capable of maintaining 

152 



THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE 

in peace and in war a constitution worthy of such a 
country." 

Thus was McGee the western tribune of Confed- 
eration. It was a day of closer intercourse between 
public men and the people; public meetings were a 
frequent duty apart from the necessities of a campaign. 
McGee traversed the land as the eloquent interpreter 
of the new Idea. Handsome he was not, but impressive 
he ever remained. 

"His face was flat and heavy," said Sir George W. 
Ross, describing his impressions of McGee at a meeting 
at London, Ontario, in 1865, — "a face that no one would 
turn around to look at a second time. . . . The 
mellow richness of Mr. McGee's voice and the rhythm 
and cadence of the Queen's English as it flowed from 
his lips greatly impressed me. I noted also the finish 
of his sentences, coupled with a poetical glow which 
awakened emotions and feelings never before touched 
by the human voice. Of course argument and fact and 
history were there, all beautifully blended."* 

Charles Mair aptly expressed the country's admir- 
ation in the hour of McGee's passing, when he wrote: 

"Yea, we like children stood 

When in his lofty mood 
He spoke of manly deeds which we might claim, 

And made responses fit 

While heavenly genius lit 
His melancholy eyes with lambent flame. 

And saw the distant aureoles 

And felt the Future thunder in our souls." t 

This was the man who spent three-quarters of his 
life absorbing and breathing hatred of the motherland, 

♦Getting Into Parliament and After, by Sir George W. Ross, P. 3. 
t Dreamland and Other Poems, by Charles Mair, P. 136. 

153 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

whose first mission to America had been to fan to still 
brighter hue the angry flames ever blazing among the 
Irishmen who had left Ireland for their country's good. 

McGee came honestly by his revolutionary beliefs. 
He was born at Carlingford, County Louth, Ireland, 
April 13, 1825, his father, James McGee, being a coast 
guard. For his mother, Catherine Morgan, whose 
father was a member of the ^'United Irishmen" in 1798, 
he had a deep affection, and from this attachment came 
the hatred of the Saxon which marked young McGec 
until late in the 'fifties. His school education was 
limited, but his ardent imagination and quick appre- 
hension soon made him an intelligent, if not deeply 
educated man. At seventeen he joined the tide of Irish- 
men flowing to America and landed in Boston in 1842, 
in the golden age of American literature. A few days 
later his fiery anti-British Fourth of July oration 
attracted notice, and he secured employment on the 
Boston Pilot, a weekly Irish Catholic newspaper. He 
soon became editor, and his "repeal" articles attracting 
the attention of the great Daniel O'Connell himself, he 
was invited in 1 845 — at the age of 20 — to take the editor- 
ship of the Freeman's Journal in Dublin. Though 
O'Connell had publicly praised "the inspired writings 
of a young exiled Irish boy in America," the young 
Irish boy was an intractable editor. He found O'Con- 
nell too conservative for his ardent spirits and soon 
withdrew to join the "Young Ireland" party, where he 
became intimate with Charles Gavan Duffy in the pub- 
lication of the Dublin Nation, a journal which gave 

154 



THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE 

free play to his anti-British ideas. Duffy years later 
thus described McGee's appearance at this time: 

"The young man was not prepossessing. He had 
a face of almost African type; his dress was slovenly 
even for the careless class to which he belonged; he 
looked unformed, and had a manner which struck me 
as too deferential for self-respect. But he had not 
spoken three sentences in a singularly sweet and flexible 
voice till it was plain that he was a man of fertile 
brains and great originality; a man in whom one might 
dimly discover rudiments of the orator, poet and states- 
man hidden under this ungainly disguise." 

McGee's associations with the leaders of the upris- 
ing in 1848 and his known ideas made his arrest certain. 
He was apprehended early in the trouble for his public 
utterances but allowed to go. He fled to Glasgow, 
thence back to Belfast, friends meantime supplying 
money. Then, disguised as a priest, he wended his 
lonely way along the Irish coast, presently took steamer 
for America and landed in Philadelphia on October 10, 
1848. McGee was now only 23 years old, but he had 
lived as through "a cycle of Cathay." He was soon 
back in journalism, establishing first the New York 
Nation, Becoming involved in a dispute with the 
Bishops, he removed to Boston and published The 
American Celt, and, as in the other cases, filled it with 
his feelings of hatred of Britain. 

From this time dates the beginning of the change 
in McGee's views. He began to travel extensively as a 
lecturer, and as he met hosts of refined people his opin- 
ions moderated. The futility of mere denunciation 

155 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

became apparent, and he resolved to elevate the Irish 
people by teaching them to make the best of their fate, 
instead of depending on schemes of revolution. By 1 852 
he was able to write Thomas Francis Meagher, an old 
friend, of the change he had undergone, showing that 
peace and good will had become his motto. He 
removed his base to Bufifalo, but business not being 
satisfactory, he yielded to an impulse and the requests 
of friends in Canada, whom he had met on vacation 
tours, and settled in Montreal in 1857. 

The remaking of D'Arcy McGee was now almost 
complete. His warm heart responded to the Celtic 
welcome of Montreal, and within a year he was elected 
to Parliament. His venture in Canadian journalism, as 
publisher of The New Era, was soon dropped for the 
larger duty. From the first he ranged himself, as 
befitted his race and personality, "against the govern- 
ment," and it is to be feared marked his first year or 
two by many unpleasant and severe speeches, for the 
diversion of the galleries. He studied law and was 
called to the Bar in 1861, though he never seriously 
devoted himself to that profession. Gradually he 
became a better legislator, and in 1862, on the downfall 
of the Cartier-Macdonald Government, he accepted 
office as President of the Council in the Sandfield Mac- 
donald-Sicotte Cabinet. When that administration was 
reconstructed a year later Mr. McGee and several other 
Ministers were dropped, a fact that spurred them to 
bitter opposition. McGee joined forces with J. A. 
Macdonald, for whom he had formed a warm attach- 
ment almost from their first meeting, and together they 

156 



THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE 

stumped Upper Canada against the Government that 
fall. Their efforts had much to do with the defeat of 
John Sandfield Macdonald early in 1864. In the 
Tache-Macdonald Cabinet, then formed, Mr. McGee 
became Minister of Agriculture and held that post until 
Confederation. 

McGee played a direct and important part in inter- 
esting the Maritime Provinces in union. His lecture 
in St. John in 1863 had attracted wide notice to the sub- 
ject, and the following summer one hundred Canadian 
delegates visited New Brunswick and Nova Scotia as 
a result of a conversation between McGee and Sandf ord 
Fleming, engineer for the Intercolonial Railway, who 
desired by better acquaintance to promote the larger 
union. In fact, throughout the formative years of the 
union movement, which he had with great persistency 
and eloquence advocated from his arrival in Canada, he 
was able to add his influence when opinion had to be 
made and constantly reinforced. He coined the phrase 
"the new nationality," and to that had added the policy 
of the construction of the Intercolonial Railway and the 
development of intercolonial trade as necessary accom- 
paniments. 

Coupled with the poetic fervor that was part of 
his irresistible charm, was the logical argument for 
union which he presented in all parts of the country. 
He was impressed by the danger from the Fenians and 
other potential enemies in the United States, and 
referred to this repeatedly in support of the union case. 
At Port Robinson in Upper Canada in September, 1862, 

157 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

he spoke of the "presence of the perilous circumstances 
that confront us on our southern frontier." "Rest 
assured," he said in Halifax in August, 1864, when the 
unofficial Canadian parliamentary and business delega- 
tion visited the city, "if we remain longer as frag- 
ments we shall be lost; but let us be united and we shall 
be as a rock which, unmoved itself, flings back the waves 
that may be dashed against it by the storm." At Mon- 
treal, later that year, he said the "delegates to the Que- 
bec Conference might look across the border and see 
reasons for the Conference as thick as blackberries." 

Equally impressive were his arguments for union 
V based on the necessities of defence. 

"About four years ago," he said in his memorable 
speech in the Confederation debate, on February 9, 
1865, "the first despatches began to be addressed to this 
country from the Colonial Office upon the subject (of 
defence). From that day to this there has been a 
steady stream of despatches in this direction, either 
upon particular or general points connected with our 
defence ; and I venture to say that if bound up together 
the despatches of the late lamented Duke of Newcastle 
alone would make a respectable volume — all notifying 
this Government by the advice they conveyed that the 
relations — the military apart from the political and 
commercial relations — of these Provinces to the mother 
country had changed; and we were told in the most 
explicit language that could be employed that we were 
no longer to consider ourselves in relation to defence in 
the same position we formerly occupied towards the 
mother country." 

158 



THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE 

So great a change in McGee's viewpoint and 
loyalty to authority could not be wrought without some 
sacrifice. Signs accumulated of the irritation and anger 
he was causing among his former friends. He did his 
best to carry them with him, and on many public occa- 
sions pleaded for tolerance and the burial of old feuds. 
He told his constituents in Montreal in 1861 that there 
was nothing more to be dreaded in the country than 
feuds arising from exaggerated feelings of religion and 
nationality, and a year later he told Protestant Irishmen 
of Quebec: "We Irishmen, Protestant and Catholic, 
born and bred in a land of religious controversy, should 
never forget that we now live and act in a land of the 
fullest religious and civil liberty. All we have to do is 
each for himself to keep down dissensions which can 
only weaken, impoverish and keep back the country." 

It was in the spirit of broad tolerance that he 
revisited Ireland in 1865 and made the fateful speech 
at Wexford which inflamed the Fenian element against 
him. He left Montreal in April with a message of good 
will ringing in his ears, in which "men of all countries 
and creeds" joined in congratulating him on his mission 
to represent his Province at the Dublin Exhibition. 

Exhaling the spirit of the new world, McGee spoke 
at Wexford, where he told his co-religionists : "There 
ought to be no separation of the Kingdoms of Great 
Britain and Ireland. Each country would suffer loss 
in the loss of the other, and even liberty in Europe 
would be exposed to the perils of shipwreck if those 
islands were divided by a hostile sea." He was equally 
candid in his words to Englishmen, whom he urged to 

159 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

try kindness and generosity in their legislation for Ire- 
land. He asked them to treat Ireland as they treated 
Scotland — apply the golden rule. 

Barely had the news of this speech reached Mon- 
treal before the Fenian irreconcilables were ablaze with 
anger. A disclaimer was prepared and signed by six 
hundred Montrealers of Irish birth, repudiating the 
sentiments of the Wexford speech. They declared them 
to be "reflections upon the character, moral, social and 
political, of our fellow-countrymen in the United States 
of America, which we believe to be not only unhand- 
some and ungenerous but positively unjust." 

An observer at the time spoke of this disclaimer 
as "very suggestive and ominous," and McGee's enemies 
were soon to increase. At the next election, in 1867, 
he was viciously attacked in his Montreal riding, and 
his majority greatly reduced. This ingratitude broke 
his spirit and an illness followed. He recovered, a 
chastened and abstemious man, and attended the session 
of 1868, where his last words were a message of toler- 
ance and good will concerning the agitation in Nova 
Scotia for the repeal of the union. "We need above 
everything else," he said, "the healing influence of 
time." He reminded the troubled House that time 
would heal all existing irritations, and added : "By and 
by, time will show us the constitution of this Dominion 
as much cherished in the hearts of the people of all these 
Provinces, not excepting Nova Scotia, as is the British 
constitution itself." "We will compel them to come in 
and accept this union," he concluded, "we will compel 
them by our fairness, our kindness, our love, to be one 
' 160 



THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE 

with us, in this common and this great national work." 

These words of singular prophecy and solace were 
like a benediction. It was McGee's last appearance 
in the House. Some hours after midnight, when the 
adjournment came, he walked to his lodgings in Sparks 
Street in Ottawa. A stealthy assassin followed, and as 
McGee stooped to open the door with his key, a bullet 
crashed through his head and he died instantly. Sir 
John Macdonald was summoned from his home and 
was the first to raise the stricken head from the pave- 
ment. McGee was already dead. 

The country was shocked at the news. Sir John 
Macdonald, in informing the House the next day, said : 
"It is with pain amounting to anguish that I rise to 
address you. He who last night — nay, this morning — 
was with us and of us, whose voice is still ringing in our 
ears, who charmed us with his marvellous eloquence, 
elevated us by his large statesmanship, and instructed 
us by his wisdom and patriotism, is no more." 

Sir John, in a letter to Archbishop Connolly of 
Halifax some weeks later, stated that it had been 
arranged that McGee was to retire to the position of 
Commissioner of Patents that summer and devote his 
life to literature and other congenial employments.* 

McGee was buried at Montreal, where a sympa- 
thizing public joined in an imposing service on April 
13. Several arrests were made for the assassination, but 
Thomas Whalen was convicted and executed on Febru- 
ary 11, 1869. 

♦Sir John A. Macdonald: A Memoir, by Joseph Pope, Vol. II, 
P. 12. 

161 
11 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

McGee began life a hot-headed revolutionary in a 
land of perpetual unrest; he ended it a sane, tolerant 
statesman where his public services and w^arm person- 
ality were to keep his memory green for generations. 

A verse from his own "Canadian Ballads" might 
well be his epitaph : 

"Rob me of all the joys of sense. 
Curse me with all but impotence, 
Fling me upon an ocean oar, 
Cast me upon a savage shore ; 
Slay me! But own above my bier 
'The man now gone still held yet here 
The jewel Independence.' " 



162 



SIR ANTOINE A. DORION 




SIR ANTOINE AIME DORION 



SIR ANTOINE A. DORION 

(1818-1891) 

JUDGED by the sordid standards of the spoilsman, 
the public life of Antoine Aime Dorion was a fail- 
ure; out of two decades of public life he held office for 
but a few months. Judged by standards of honest duty, 
his life was successful ; he held his ideals and remained 
an unblemished public servant. Dorion was the ally of 
George Brown, as Cartier was the ally of John A. 
Macdonald. Dorion and Cartier represented the age- 
long fight between progress and reaction; but it was 
Cartier's fortune to win and achieve, Dorion's to lose 
and oppose. While history justifies Cartier's advocacy 
of Confederation, it cannot wholly condemn the con- 
scientious objections of Dorion. Cartier was an impetu- 
ous optimist, who saw unlimited progress in union. 
Dorion was an honest pessimist, who believed a union 
of all the Provinces too great an undertaking. Cartier 
was converted to union in 1858 by the arguments of 
Gait. Dorion favored a federation of the two Canadas 
as early as 1856. Cartier was backed by the priesthood 
and lured by national expansion. Dorion by prophesy- 
ing the domination of the British province seriously 
threatened the Confederation cause. 

Dorion's steadfast opposition led to a pathetic 
breach with George Brown. They had been deskmates 
in the Assembly, their ideas were similarly radical, they 
consulted on all things and agreed on most things. 

165 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

They joined in forming the Brown-Dorion Govern- 
ment, of a few days' duration, in 1858, but they parted 
on the coalition of 1864. Brown threw away his politi- 
cal advantages to join his foes and aid Confederation. 
Dorion and Holton* opposed the coalition and declared 
it was a mere scheme by Macdonald to hold office. 
This beautiful friendship between Brown and Dorion 
had stood the tension of interprovincial warfare, when 
Brown abused the Lower Canadians and Dorion cham- 
pioned his own people, but it split on the issue of union, 
to which Dorion's opposition was in detail rather than 
in principle. On Brown's resignation from the Cabinet, 
a year later, the old relations were resumed, and held 
until Brown's death in 1880. 

Antoine Dorion came of a noted family of French- 
Canadian public men, his father, P. A. Dorion, his 
grandfather, an uncle and a brother all being at some 
time members of the Assembly or Legislative Council. 
He was born in the parish of St. Anne de la Perade, in 
the County of Champlain, on January 17, 1818. After 
local schooling, his father, a general merchant, sent him 
to Nicolet College, and he was called to the Bar in 1842. 
He was soon conspicuous in law in Montreal, and 
showed political capacity, though he was not elected 
to Parliament until 1854. Papineau, then a veteran 
and bearing the tarnish of the Rebellion of 1837, was 
still powerful, and round him gathered a group of ener- 
getic young men, who in 1850 formed the Parti Rouge, 
asserting one of the most radical platforms ever pre- 

*Luther Hamilton Holton, (1817-80), a painstaking parliamentarian, 
an orator and highly respected public man ; entered Parliament in 1854 
and remained a member almost continuously until his death. 

166 



SIR ANTOINE A. DORION 

sented in the country. The French revolution of 1848 
had just inflamed the youth of Europe, and the young 
bloods of the Parti Rouge considered themselves worthy 
of the men of Paris. Their nev^spaper, L'Avenir, 
advocated universal suffrage, an elective judiciary, 
abolition of property qualifications for members of the 
Legislature, abolition of State religion, and even annex- 
ation to the United States. "In former ages," said 
UAvenir, "Christianity, sciences, arts and printing v^ere 
given to the nations to civilize them ; now^ popular edu- 
cation, commerce and universal suffrage will make them 
free." 

Before this onslaught, which had its counterpart in 
Upper Canada in the "Clear Grits" of the day, Lafon- 
taine retired from public life in 1851, despondent at 
the division in his party. The man who had accom- 
plished responsible government three years before was 
now too conservative! In 1854 Papineau's tempestu- 
ous public career ended, and with his retirement A. A. 
Dorion became the leader of the Rouges. The new party 
reached its zenith at the elections of that year, when 
nineteen Rouges were returned to the Assembly. The 
majority were young men of earnestness and ability, and 
their fault was in their youth. Time modified their 
views, and Dorion's radicalism was the foundation of 
the future Liberal party of Quebec. 

Dorion entered Parliament equipped for the large 
part he was to play in public life. He was already 
distinguished at the Bar, his education was thorough, 
and his manner courtly and polished. He declined to 

167 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

join in the coalition of 1854, and for the next four years 
was a destructive critic of the Administration. Cartier 
offered him the post of Provincial Secretary in 1857, but 
he declined. In the elections of December and January 
following, the Rouges paid the penalty for their alliance 
with the "Clear Grits," and their ranks were sadly thin- 
ned. Dorion was returned, and in the following August 
he joined in the formation of the Brown-Dorion Gov- 
ernment after the fall of the Macdonald-Cartier 
Cabinet. The new Government's resignation after tw^o 
days followed a misunderstanding with the Governor, 
Sir Edmund Head, who refused a dissolution. 

The importance of this Ministry lies in the under- 
standing reached by Brown and Dorion on future 
policies. The French-Canadian leader agreed ''that the 
principle of representation by population was sound, but 
said that the French-Canadian people feared the conse- 
quences of Upper Canadian preponderance, feared that 
the peculiar institutions of French Canada would be 
swept away. He therefore thought that representation 
by population must be accomplished by constitutional 
checks and safeguards. Brown and Dorion parted in 
the belief that this could be arranged. They believed 
also that they could agree upon an educational policy 
in which religious instruction could be given without 
the evils of separation."* 

The agreement was destined to failure through the 
return of the Cartier-Macdonald Government to office 
by the "Double Shuffle." Dorion was defeated in 1861, 

*Georgc Brown, by John Lewis, (Morang & Co.), P. 101. 

168 



SIR ANTOINE A. DORION 

Sicotte* becoming Rouge leader, but returned the next 
year and held office as Provincial Secretary for a few 
months in the Sandfield Macdonald-Sicotte Govern- 
ment. Dissatisfaction with the Government's policy on 
the Intercolonial Railway led to his resignation in 
January, 1863, but he was again in office for a few 
months as Attorney-General East in the reconstruc- 
ted Sandfield Macdonald-Dorion Cabinet. This 
ended Dorion's Cabinet service, except for six 
months in the Mackenzie Government a decade later. 
His intervening years were marked by the many duties 
of an Opposition critic armed with a rapier, and never 
using the coarser weapons of an untrained mind. 

The Confederation battle in Lower Canada was 
marked by party, racial and personal considerations. It 
was the heyday of George Etienne Cartier, and his 
dashing courage attempted to carry all before it. Dorion 
was one of a group of exceedingly able men who 
opposed him. Dorion's position bears some resem- 
blance to that of Joseph Howe in Nova Scotia. Like 
Howe, he had been an early advocate of a form of fed- 
eration. As early as 1856 he had moved this resolution : 

"That a committee be appointed to inquire into the 
means that should be adopted to form a new political 
and legislative organization of the heretofore Provinces 
of Upper and Lower Canada, either by the establish- 
ment of their former territorial divisions or by a divi- 
sion of each Province, so as to form a federation having 

*Louis Victor Sicotte, (1812-89), in Parliament from 1852 to 
1863; Judge of the Superior Court 1863 to 1887, a leader of moderate 
Reformers and member of the Macdonald-Sicotte Administration 1862-63. 

169 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

a federal government and a local legislature for each 
one of the new Provinces, and to deliberate as to the 
course w^hich should be adopted to regulate the affairs 
of United Canada in a manner which would be equit- 
able to the different sections of the Province." 

Thus Dorion admitted the unsatisfactory condi- 
tions which then existed. Brown, his deskmate, was 
preaching the failure of the union, and in 1859 the 
Upper Canada Reformers called for its repeal. The 
union, which began in 1841 with equal representation, 
though Lower Canada then had 625,000 people to 
Upper Canada's 455,000, was an increasing annoyance 
with 890,000 in Lower Canada and 952,000 in Upper 
Canada by 1851. Lower Canadians could point to their 
own generosity in granting equal representation, but 
the disparity grew so rapidly as to accelerate the dis- 
content beyond the Ottawa. 

It might have been expected that Dorion would 
have followed the gleam and taken the larger view. 
In 1859 he saw only two logical alternatives : dissolution 
of the union or federation, on the one hand, and repre- 
sentation by population on the other. Two years later 
he had admitted the time might come when a federation 
of all the Provinces might be necessary. But when the 
great test came he broke with Brown, fought Cartier 
and the Church — which in turn bitterly opposed the 
Rouges — and assumed the role of a Faint-heart. 

Before the Quebec Conference was a month over, 
Dorion was on record as an opponent of the scheme and 
issued a lengthy manifesto to his constituents in Hoche- 
laga. "It has always appeared to me," he said, "that the 

170 



SIR ANTOINE A. DORION 

present circumstances of the several Provinces do not 
render such a union desirable, and that we might by a 
treaty of commerce and reciprocity assure to each Pro- 
vince all the advantages which might be procurable or 
derived from a union. I do not see anything in the 
scheme of federation to induce me to alter my opinion." 

Dorion's speech in the Confederation debates, on 
February 16, 1865, was one of the ablest contributions 
from the opponents of union. Some of his prophecies 
of evil, such as his strictures on the nominated Senate, 
have been justified ; others were unfounded and quickly 
forgotten. True to his early advocacy of elective pub- 
lic servants, Dorion opposed the nomination of Gov- 
ernor-General, local Governors, Senators and Legisla- 
tive Councillors as portending "the most illiberal con- 
stitution ever heard of in any country where constitu- 
tional government prevails." As a consistent opponent 
of the Intercolonial Railway, he pictured the Grand 
Trunk as backing the new project of Confederation in 
order to secure the building of the new line to the east- 
ern Provinces. That railway, it is quite true, has 
brought deficits and patronage evils, but its value as a 
backbone of national connection and sentiment cannot 
be denied. Dorion, like Oliver Mowat in Upper Can- 
ada, was strong for provincial rights, and opposed the 
veto power retained by the central government. 

"Do you not see," he said, "that it is quite possible 
for a majority in a local government to be opposed to 
the general government ; and in such a case the minority 
would call upon the general government to disallow the 
laws enacted by the majority? . . . What will be 

171 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

the result in such a state of things but bitterness of feel- 
ing, strong political acrimony and dangerous agita- 
tion?" 

It is fair to say that, while the powers of the central 
government have been restricted under court decisions, 
the value of a strong authority has been generally con- 
ceded. Dorion declared he would not say he would 
be opposed to Confederation for all time. Population 
might extend over the wilderness between the Maritime 
Provinces and Canada, and commercial intercourse 
might increase sufficiently to render Confederation 
desirable. He denied that he had ever favored union 
of all the Provinces, and declared he stood, as for years 
past, for a federation of the two Canadas. 

On one thing Dorion was firm, and that was the 
protection of the interests of the people of Lower Can- 
ada, whom he saw threatened with a legislative union. 
"The people of Lower Canada," he said, picturing the 
feared oppression of a minority, "are attached to their 
institutions in a manner that defies any attempt to 
change them in that way. They will not change their 
religious institutions, their laws and their language for 
any consideration whatever. A million of inhabitants 
may seem a small affair to the mind of a philosopher 
who sits down to write out a constitution. He may 
think it would be better that there should be but one 
religion, one language, and one system of laws, and he 
goes to work to frame institutions that will bring all 
to that desirable state; but I can tell honorable gentle- 
men that the history of every country goes to show that 

172 



SIR ANTOINE A. DORION 

not even by the power of the sword can such changes 
be accomplished." 

Dorion's pessimistic view reached its climax in his 
conclusion : 

"I will simply content myself with saying that for 
these reasons, which I have so imperfectly exposed, I 
strongly fear it would be i dark day for Canada when 
she adopted such a scheme as this. It would be one 
marked in the history of this country as having had a 
most depressing and crushing influence on the energies 
of the people in both Upper and Lower Canada, for I 
consider it one of the worst schemes that could be 
brought under the consideration of the House, and if 
it should be adopted without the sanction of the people, 
the country would never cease to regret it." 

Barely was the momentous debate in Quebec con- 
cluded before Dorion and his Rouge associates were at 
work among the people. A score of French-Canadian 
counties favored a plebiscite, and more than 20,000 
persons signed petitions against final action without a 
popular vote. Dorion, L. O. David, Mederic Lanctot 
and others spoke against the union measure. Wilfrid 
Laurier, then a young lawyer of twenty-three, spoke at 
St. Julie, in Montcalm County, in February, 1865, 
along with other opponents, including the fiery Lanctot, 
then his law partner. Laurier's words are not recorded, 
except to say that he supported the other speakers, and 
resolutions in support of Dorion's policy were adopted. 
So the battle went on, the Rouges meeting the 
people, but unable to make headway against the com- 
bined Cartier and clerical influence, then sweeping the 
Province. 173 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Dorion and nineteen other members of the Assem- 
bly, including Holton and Huntington, issued a final 
"Remonstrance" in October, 1866, addressed to the Earl 
of Carnarvon. In this they asked, in moderate lan- 
guage, for the submission of union to the people before 
it became effective. "We seek delay," they said, "not to 
frustrate the purposes of a majority of our couqtrymen, 
but to prevent their being surprised, against their will 
or without their consent, into a political change which, 
however obnoxious and oppressive to them it might 
prove, cannot be reversed without such an agitation as 
every well-wisher to his country must desire to avert." 

Such appeals to reason broke down before the 
forces united for union. The final undoing of the 
opposition came through a characteristically adroit 
move by Sir John A. Macdonald. In the summer of 
1867 he chose as the first Premier of Quebec, P. J. O. 
Chauveau,* a friend and former follower of Papineau, 
but now a staunch upholder of Catholicism. With 
Cartier at Ottawa and Chauveau at Quebec, the habi- 
tant was not alarmed for his future. 

Dorion was elected to the House of Commons in 
1867 and continued, in the reunited Liberal party, an 
alert critic of the new Administration. In the first ses- 
sion he resumed his activity against the Intercolonial 
Railway by moving — unsuccessfully, of course — that 

*Pierre Joseph Oliver Chauveau, (1820-90), was an influential figure 
in Lower Canadian public life. He entered Parliament in 1844; was 
Superintendent of Education for Lower Canada 1855-67, Premier of Quebec 
1867-73, Speaker of the Senate 1873-74, afterwards Sheriff of Montreal. 
He was widely known as a writer, orator and poet, as well. 

174 



SIR ANTOINE A. DORION 

the route should not be determined without the consent 
of Parliament. In 1873 he was associated with Edward 
Blake as Liberal member of the Committee to probe 
the Pacific Scandal, but they eventually refused to act 
in the capacity of a commission as asked by the Govern- 
ment, when the Oaths Act had been disallowed as ultra 
vires. When the Mackenzie Government came in on 
the wave of anger aroused by the scandal, Dorion 
became Minister of Justice. His few months of office 
at this time were marked by the passage of the electoral 
law of 1 874 and the Controverted Elections Act. 

Dorion was now fifty-six years old, and twenty 
years in politics had worn his body and absorbed his 
means. He was offered and accepted the office of Chief 
Justice of Quebec, for which his legal abilities and his 
just character eminently fitted him. Seventeen years of 
unswerving devotion to duty on the Bench enhanced 
the respect and affection in which he was held. At the 
end of May, 1891, while political strife throughout 
Canada was hushed as citizens of all parties watched 
the passing of Sir John A. Macdonald, Dorion was 
stricken with paralysis, in the midst of his service, and 
died at his home in Montreal on the last day of the 
month. The Conservative chieftain, who had been his 
antagonist for so many years, followed in less than a 
week. 

A polished gentleman of another day passed in 
Dorion. "A man of exquisite courtesy of manners," 
Sir Wilfrid Laurier wrote of him, "he yet always was 
somewhat distant. He never had recourse to the easy 
method of winning popularity by promiscuous fam- 

175 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

iliarity. He never pandered to the vulgar tastes, never 
deviated from the path which seemed to him the path 
of truth. He never craved success for the sake of suc- 
cess; he steadily struggled for the right as he saw the 
right. He met defeat without weakness, and when suc- 
cess came, success found him without exultation."* 

Dorion's actual accomplishment in legislation is 
slight; his noble and serene character stands out with a 
white light in the murk of political warfare. 

"Canada has had few nobler servants than Antoine 
Dorion," wrote J. S. Willison in "Sir Wilfrid Laurier 
and the Liberal Party." "A man of magnanimous 
spirit, of beautiful character, and of rare sagacity, he 
fought through a long public career, in a bitter and 
factious time, without a stain upon his shield, unsoured 
by reverses and untouched by sordid bargainings for the 
spoils or the dignities of office." 

*"Sir Antoine Aime Dorion," by Wilfrid Laurier, The Week, Sept. 
26, 1890. 



176 



CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN 



ft 



12 




CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN 



CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN 

(1811-1881) 

AN under-sized, slim, wiry man, with a nervous, 
energetic air, a lawyer whom D'Arcy McGee 
called a "hair-splitter," — this was Christopher Dunkin, 
who introduced temperance legislation into the Pro- 
vince of Canada, and who delivered the ablest speech 
against Confederation in the memorable debates of 
1865. On temperance the world in general, and Can- 
ada in particular, has moved far beyond him. On Con- 
federation his doleful prophecies have not been realized, 
though events have justified some of his criticisms. It is 
a curious fact that A. A. Dorion, the French Catholic, 
feared that Confederation would overwhelm the French 
race in the Dominion, while Dunkin, the Protestant, 
was alarmed, in turn, for the welfare of his own race 
under the local government of Quebec. Time has 
shown that no Canadian Government could live without 
liberal support from Quebec, while the chief complaint 
of Quebec Protestants is that the French are crowding 
them out by increase of population. 

Christopher Dunkin was the lawyer in politics. 
He was voluminous in speech, drew fine distinctions, 
often not obvious to others, and he was totally lacking 
in eloquence. He was serious, earnest, and scholarly, 
and, as Sir William Dawson has said, would have made 
a good college president. His professional life was 
successful, and many a wealthy client found his way to 

179 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

the office of Bethune & Dunkin in Little St. James 
Street in Montreal, a thoroughfare so narrow that dex- 
terous young men might almost leap across it. Mon- 
treal in those days was still largely British and Protes- 
tant, a survival of early fur trading days, as contrasted 
with the overwhelming French element of the present 
time. Dunkin took up law late in life, being called to 
the Bar in 1846, at the age of 35, but except for four 
years of public office, from 1867 to 1871, he gave the 
rest of his years to that profession, the last ten being 
spent on the Bench. 

Dunkin was born in London, England, on Septem- 
ber 24, 1811, and after an education at London and 
Glasgow Universities he migrated to the United States, 
where he taught Greek for a time at Harvard Univer- 
sity. He came to Lower Canada a little later and edited 
The Morning Chronicle in Montreal for a year, in 
1837-8. About this time he came under the notice of 
the Earl of Durham, and was appointed Secretary of 
his Education Commission, and later was Secretary of 
the Post Office Commission. On the adoption of Union 
in 1841 he was appointed Assistant Secretary for Lower 
Canada, holding the post until elected to the Assembly 
in 1847. These varied experiences, together with his 
legal training, gave Dunkin an education for public 
life. He sat for Drummond and Arthabaska until 1861, 
andior Brome from 1862 until his retirement. Yielding 
to a clamor for a resident member, he moved to Knowl- 
ton in the middle 'sixties, and with his wife, formerly 
Miss Mary Barber of Montreal, a superior woman, took 
part in welfare work for the benefit of immigrant girls. 

180 



CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN 

His party affiliations were Conservative, but on the issue 
of Confederation, as in other matters, he acted with 
independence. 

One of Dunkin's historic legal cases was his argu- 
ment on the seigniorial tenure question. In 1853, when 
L. T. Drummond introduced a Government measure 
proposing to reduce such of the lands as were held 
to be exorbitant, and to obtain judicial decisions as to 
their legality, Dunkin appeared at the bar of the House, 
and for an entire evening presented with great skill the 
question from the seigniors' point of view. The bill 
was finally passed by the Assembly, but rejected by the 
Legislative Council. 

Dunkin's great speech against Confederation was 
made during the lengthy debate at Quebec in the 
winter of 1 865. Though he apologized for being physi- 
cally unfitted for the task before him, he occupied the 
evening of February 27 and the entire afternoon and 
evening until almost midnight of the next day. He 
began with a well sustained prepared utterance, but, as 
he proceeded, the interruptions of other members, chief- 
ly his opponent Cartier, though good-natured, broke its 
continuity and resulted in a certain diffuseness. Dun- 
kin's speech was not eloquent, but it is regarded as the 
most elaborate and effective argument given against 
union. He said he believed he was opposed to powerful 
odds, and that there was a feeling of hurry and impa- 
tience in the House. He had always been a unionist in 
the strict and largest sense of the term, he said. "I desire 
to perpetuate the union between Upper and Lower 

181 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Canada. I desire to see developed the largest union that 
can possibly be developed — I care not by what name 
you call it — between all the colonies, provinces and 
dependencies of the British Crown." 

In this sentiment Dunkin resembled Howe of Nova 
Scotia, another Imperial federationist. Half a century 
was to pass without the idea being advanced in any 
formal way, though the outbreak of war in 1914 
revealed an Imperial unity of feeling that no mere fed- 
eration of parliaments could have developed. 

Dunkin said the Confederation scheme amounted 
practically to a division of Upper and Lower Canada, 
and on that account he was irrevocably opposed to it. 
He even saw in it a tendency to a not distant division of 
those Provinces from the British Empire. He favored 
rather a slow change and growth as in the physical 
world. There had been no demand for Confederation ; 
the idea had no place in the public mind. Representa- 
tions had been made to the Imperial Government in 
1858, and when the despatches were laid on the table 
in 1859 "nobody asked a question about them." 

In 1864, Dunkin recalled, George Brown had 
secured a committee to consider constitutional changes. 
"That honorable gentleman did a very clever thing in 
embodying in his motion extracts from the unfortunate 
defunct despatch of Messrs. Cartier, Gait, and Ross." 

"It was a fortunate despatch," Cartier broke in, — 
"unfortunate for you but fortunate for us." 

"It is an old proverb that says, 'He laughs well 
who laughs last,' " Dunkin replied. 

"I expect to laugh the last," answered Cartier. 

182 



CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN 

"We have yet to see," Dunkin went on, "in the first 
place, whether the thing is done, and then, if it is done, 
if it succeeds." 

"If 'twere done, 'twere well it were done quickly," 
was the ready sally from D'Arcy McGee. 

Dunkin admitted that he had voted and spoken for 
Brown's committee, and had sat on it, but claimed the 
Confederation part of their report had been opposed 
by John A. Macdonald himself and had been inserted 
unexpectedly at the last moment. 

Analyzing the scheme in greater detail, Dunkin 
said it promised everything for everybody, and yet the 
terms were ambiguous, unsubstantial, and unreal. They 
were called upon to admit that the work of 33 gentle- 
men done in seventeen days was much better work than 
that of the f ramers of the United States constitution, or 
even the constitution of the motherland. The House 
of Commons was to follow largely the American House 
of Representatives, which he considered the wrong 
model. He regarded the American Senate as "the 
ablest deliberative body the world has ever known," 
but the method of choosing the Canadian Upper House 
would make for a lower quality of men. The duty of 
advising and aiding the head of the government in 
the discharge of executive functions fell wholly upon 
the executive council, while in the United States the 
Senate had large executive functions. 

"Without responsibility for their advice," said 
Cartier, interrupting. "We have responsibility, and in 
that respect our system is better." 

Dunkin then prophesied there would be difficulty 

183 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

in giving all classes and sections of the country repre- 
sentation in the Cabinet, a prophecy which was sub- 
sequently justified by Sir John A. Macdonald's experi- 
ence in forming his Cabinet in 1867. 

"It will be none too easy a task," Dunkin said, "to 
form an executive council with its three members for 
Lower Canada, and satisfy the somewhat pressing 
exigencies of her creeds and races." 

"Hear, hear," said Cartier. 

"The Honorable Attorney-General East probably 
thinks he will be able to do it," said Dunkin. 

"I have no doubt I can," responded the man of 
action, with his usual confidence. 

Lack of uniformity, Dunkin said, would character- 
ize the constitutions and legislation of the various pro- 
vinces. The federal right of disallowance would result 
in clashes with the local governments. Dunkin 
expressed fear that lieutenant-governors would be 
appointed whose past political career might render 
them unwelcome to the majority in the provinces. 

Experience has not found this a substantial griev- 
ance, as lieutenant-governors are a social rather than 
an executive force. 

Though the champion of the Protestants of Que- 
bec, Dunkin sought to awaken the fears of the French. 
"The moment," he said, "you tell Lower Canada that 
the large sounding powers of your general government 
are going to be handed over to a British American 
majority, decidedly not of the race and faith of her 
majority, that moment you wake up the old jealousies 
and hostility in their strongest form. The French," he 

184 



CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN 

continued, "will find themselves a minority in the gen- 
eral legislature, and their powers in the general govern- 
ment will depend upon their power within their own 
province, and over their provincial delegations in the 
federal Parliament. They will themselves be com- 
pelled to be practically aggressive to secure and retain 
that power." 

The financial outlook caused anxiety for Mr. Dun- 
kin. Local governments would depend largely on the 
general government for revenue. He pictured provin- 
cial candidates boasting to their electorate of the in- 
creases in subsidies they had secured from the Domin- 
ion, and added: "I am afraid the provincial constitu- 
encies, legislatures, and executives will all show a most 
calf-like appetite for the milk of this most magnificent 
government cow." 

Dunkin had no love for the Intercolonial nor for 
the idea of Western expansion. He saw no great com- 
mercial or military advantages in the former, and if it 
had political value the mother country should aid in its 
construction. Expansion could only be coupled with 
expenditures they had not yet dreamed of. One of his 
last arguments was an appeal to local pride : 

'The Federal Government of the United States 
takes its place in the great family of nations of the 
world ; but what place in that family are we to occupy? 
Simply none. The Imperial Government will be the 
head of the Empire as much as ever, and will alone 
have to attend to all foreign relations and national 
matters; while we shall be nothing more than we are 
now. Half a dozen colonies federated are but a feder- 

185 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

ated colony after all. Instead of being so many separate 
provinces with workable institutions, we are to be one 
province, most cumbrously organized — nothing more." 

Why not, he concluded, go on with the institutions 
they had? The one thing needed was "the exercise by 
our public men and by our people of that amount of 
discretion, good temper, and forbearance which sees 
something larger and higher in public life than mere 
party struggles and -cries without end; of that political 
sagacity or capacity, call it what you will, with which 
they will surely find the institutions they have to be quite 
good enough for them to use and quietly make better, 
without which they will as surely find any that may 
anyhow be given them to be quite as bad for them to 
fight over and make worse." 

Though Dunkin had argued almost exhaustively 
against Confederation, when it became apparent that no 
action on his part could achieve its defeat he declared, 
in 1866, his determination to aid in making it as benefi- 
cial as possible. He assisted in forming the preparatory 
legislation and championed the educational rights of 
the minorities in both Upper and Lower Canada. 
When the first Quebec Cabinet was being formed in 
1867 by Mr. Cauchon,* Dunkin declined a portfolio on 
the ground that Cauchon had been unjust to the Protes- 
tants of Quebec in opposing Langevin'st bill, giving 

*Joseph 6douard Cauchon, (1816-85), a fiery, though intellectual 
French-Canadian, who entered Parliament for Montmorency in 1844, held 
office in various Cabinets, and was Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba 
1877-82. 

tSir Hector L. Langevin, (1826-1906), once a law student in the 
office of Sir George E. Cartier, and after the latter's death, leader of 
the Conservatives in Quebec. He entered Parliament in 1857, attended the 
Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences, and was long a Cabinet colleague 
of Sir John A. Macdonald. 

186 



CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN 

them control of their own schools. As Dunkin's decision 
was followed by other Protestants' refusal, Cauchon 
could not form a Cabinet. Chauveau was called on, and 
Dunkin entered his Administration as Treasurer. Two 
years later he joined the Dominion Cabinet as Minister 
of Agriculture and Statistics, and in October, 1871, was 
made a puisne Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec. 

Christopher Dunkin's name is inseparably con- 
nected with temperance in Canada. He was a religious 
man with a strong sense of public duty, and the Temper- 
ance Act which bears his name was a pioneer measure 
of reform. When taunted with the statement that no 
county would carry it, he said he would resign if his 
own county of Brome would not accept it. It was 
adopted and remained in force during his lifetime. 

When Dunkin introduced his temperance bill in 
1864 he naturally did not attract enthusiastic notice. 
The country was honeycombed with taverns and distil- 
leries, and no social gathering was considered complete 
without the liquor that then had few enemies. There 
had been agitations in the Maritime Provinces and in 
the United States against the "demon rum," but the per- 
missive legislation known in history as the Dunkin Act 
was the first measure of its kind in Canada. Its title in 
the Statutes of 1864 is: "An Act to amend the laws in 
force respecting the sale of intoxicating liquors and the 
issue of licenses therefor, and otherwise for repression 
of abuses resulting from such sale." It was the fore- 
runner of the Scott Act and the local option laws of later 
days, and for some years a sprinkling of municipalities 
became comparatively "dry" under its provisions. 

187 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Mr. Dunkin's explanation of the bill attracted al- 
most no notice in the newspapers of the day, a fact 
which illustrates the paucity of interest in the subject. 
The Globe's despatch from Quebec on May 12 said: 

"Mr. Dunkin, in moving the House into committee 
on his Temperance bill, explained its provisions clause 
by clause, speaking upwards of two hours, and after- 
wards repeated some of his explanations in French, 
which language he speaks with much fluency and cor- 
rectness." 

On the 18th the House spent the afternoon and 
evening in committee on the bill, made some amend- 
ments and reported it, thus giving a start they doubtless 
little appreciated at the time to a chain of legislation 
which has since covered the greater part of Canada in 
much more drastic form. 

In the serenity of age Judge Dunkin passed his ten 
years on the Bench, going about among his own people 
in a dignified and altogether suitable profession. His 
circuit of Bedford and Beauharnois gave him contact 
with the two races whose language he had mastered and 
whose contrasting peculiarities he understood. He was 
a painstaking and earnest Judge, holding the respect of 
lawyers and enjoying the confidence of litigants. He 
encouraged agriculture and was an inspiration to the 
progressive farmers of that stock-raising region. 

Judge Dunkin passed away at his home at Knowl- 
ton on January 6, 1881, having reached his three score 
and ten, leaving a reputation for singular uprightness 
and devotion to duty. 

188 . 



NEW BRUNSWICK 

SIR SAMUEL LEONARD TILLEY 
PETER MITCHELL 
SIR ALBERT J. SMITH 



SIR LEONARD TILLEY 




SIR SAMUEL LEONARD TILLEY 



SIR LEONARD TILLEY 

(1818-1896) 

TTTHILE Upper Canada was all but unanimous for 
» ▼ Confederation, and in Lower Canada Cartier was 
rapidly conquering opposition, down in the Maritime 
Provinces there was antagonism which almost para- 
lyzed the whole movement. The burden of the battle 
for union in New Brunswick fell largely on Samuel 
Leonard Tilley, once an apothecary's apprentice, later 
Premier of his Province, and destined to stand high in 
the councils of the new, wide Dominion. For his trying 
task, Tilley brought qualities of no ordinary strength. 
He was energetic, kindly, honest, gentlemanly, with 
scarceljr an enemy in the world. He was a fluent, force- 
ful speaker, with an attractive presence and a penetrat- 
ing political judgment. He was a Puritan in principle 
and the first statesman in British North America to 
introduce a prohibitory liquor bill. 

Tilley's strong principles did not lessen his friends, 
for he had a saving sense of humor. When he was 
Finance Minister at Ottawa he carried his temperance 
practice into effect at his official dinners. But on one 
occasion, as the plum pudding was brought in, covered 
with a rich blue blaze, John Henry Pope, of Compton, 
one of the members present, said in a stage whisper: 

" 'Pon my word, I never saw ginger ale burn like 
that." 

Tilley joined in the roar of laughter that followed. 

193 

13 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Isolated, unprotected and in need of liberal devel- 
opment, New Brunswick early felt the need of union. 
In 1853 when the first sod was turned for the railway 
from St. John to Shediac, the directors of the new line, 
addressing Sir Edmund Head, then Governor, expressed 
the hope that the British Provinces should become "a 
powerful and united portion of the British Empire." 
Sir Edmund Head endorsed the sentiment and hoped 
the people of Canada and the Maritime Provinces 
would speedily realize that their interests were iden- 
tical. The desire for railways was an abiding ambition 
for the Province, and the Intercolonial was one will-o'- 
the-wisp that hastened consideration of Confederation. 

Tilley had been an approving listener in 1860 when 
Dr. Charles Tupper, lecturing in St. John, advocated 
a union of British North America. Two years later he 
attended the conference at Quebec regarding the Inter- 
colonial Railway, and visited Upper Canada, when 
delegates informally urged a union of the Provinces. 
The Trent Affair, and the despatch to Canada of troops 
who had to be sent overland to Quebec on sleds in win- 
ter, enforced the need of a railway when the delegates 
from the various Provinces went later to England to 
seek Imperial aid. Despite the urgency of the plea of 
Tilley and Howe, terms were not agreed upon, and the 
project was delayed indefinitely. It became, however, 
a live issue at the Quebec Conference in 1864. Tilley, 
who had joined with Tupper in organizing the Char- 
lottetown Conference for a Maritime union, was out- 
spoken at Quebec on the railway question. 
194 



SIR LEONARD TILLEY 

"The delegates from the Lower Provinces were not 
seeking this union," he said at the banquet, "They had 
assembled at Charlottetown in order to see whether 
they could not extend their family relations, and then 
Canada intervened and the consideration of the larger 
question was the result." Alluding to the Intercolonial 
Railway project he said: "We won't have this union 
unless you give us the railway. It was utterly impos- 
sible we could have either a political or commercial 
union without it." 

Tilley's genius for finance was a factor in the for- 
mation of the resolutions at Quebec, and his attractive 
personality radiated good-will and won friends every- 
where during the visit to Upper Canada. But there 
was an awakening when he returned to his own Pro- 
vince. He was not long at home before mischievous 
criticisms appeared. The secrecy of the Conference 
gave rise to many of the early misconceptions. A few 
days after the Charlottetown Conference closed the St. 
John Globe said : 

"We should not be surprised to find that the 
federation meeting at Charlottetown will result in a 
'great fizzle.' The doings of any convention or associa- 
tion that meets nowadays with closed doors rarely 
amount to anything in so far as they affect the public. 
The members of the convention made a great mistake 
in not inviting the press to attend their deliberations. 
They could have had very little to say that the public 
ought not to hear." 

Before November had ended it was clear that 
union was in for a stiff struggle in the Province. A for- 

195 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

midable opposition was already growing up, and a num- 
ber of the ablest papers in St. John were trying to turn 
the whole thing into ridicule. Tilley was already on the 
defence with a declaration that he would submit the 
question to the people. In a speech he pointed to the 
enlarged market the manufacturers of New Brunswick 
would have under union. He referred good-humoredly 
at St. John to the aspersions cast on Upper Canadian 
politicians, and said one would imagine that all at once 
the politicians of New Brunswick had become wonder- 
fully pure and patriotic. He analyzed the financial 
aspects of the agreement, and declared their revenue 
under union would be equal to what they would derive 
from an increase of 200,000 in population under the 
old conditions. He was confident that Upper Canada 
could not carry out schemes for her own aggrandize- 
ment, for her 82 representatives would be opposed in 
such a case by 65 from Lower Canada and 47 from the 
Lower Provinces. 

Nor were dangers from without forgotten by Mr. 
Tilley. He said he had nothing but the most kindly 
feelings towards the American people. "It was plain, 
however, that the English public, as well as the British 
Government, have felt for some time that our position 
with reference to the United States is not as satisfactory 
as it was in times past." The low values of colonial 
securities also reflected the feeling of uncertainty of 
British capitalists with reference to the future destiny 
of British America, while Lord Stanley had declared 
that Canada was the most indefensible country in the 
world. 

196 



SIR LEONARD TILLEY 

Hostility to the union scheme increased, fanned by 
resourceful opponents who did not want their own 
sphere of officialdom eclipsed. Early in March, 1865, 
the crash occurred. While the Confederation debate 
was in full swing at Quebec, the message came one day 
that Tilley's Confederation Government, in the first of 
the Provinces affected to consult the people, had been 
defeated, having carried only 6 out of 41 seats. 
Unionists were staggered and anti-unionists took hope 
that they might yet overthrow the scheme then being 
forced through three legislatures. The alarm which 
had prevailed in the Maritime Provinces took on a 
more acrid form, and broadsides of abuse and misrepre- 
sentation were fired on the union cause. New Bruns- 
wick was afire with excitement and the country was 
overrun with pamphleteers and propagandists. The 
bogey of direct taxation was held before the people and 
gained much headway before the true nature of the 
resolutions could be presented. As in Nova Scotia, the 
electors were told that they had been sold to the Can- 
adians for 80 cents per head, a reference, of course, to 
the subsidy of that amount which the Dominion would 
pay to the Provinces. It might have been said with as 
much truth that the Canadians had similarly been sold 
to New Brunswick. 

As in the other small Provinces, the cause of union 
met obstacles inherent to the circumstances. The Legis- 
lature had authorized a conference on Maritime union; 
a larger union was proposed without consulting the 
electorate. Mr. Tilley had doubtless relied on his elo- 
quence and power to carry a scheme which the people 

197 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

did not understand, and which appeared to be born of 
the political necessities of Canada. The Province 
would have additional taxation, the opponents said, and 
its political independence would be destroyed. 

It was Tilley's task to dissolve this vapor of ignor- 
ance and suspicion. This he did by a campaign of 
energy and persistence, covering almost every part of 
the Province. He was now a private citizen, he and all 
his colleagues having been defeated in the March elec- 
tions. He was in the prime of manhood, his figure 
was attractive, his manner impressive and his voice con- 
vincing to a people misled by agitators and ready to 
learn. 

"I will make a house-to-house canvass of the Pro- 
vince," he declared, and he almost redeemed his threat. 
He appealed to the patriotism of the people as he went 
from county to county, telling of the desire of the 
motherland that union should be adopted. "Are you 
afraid?" he thundered, with his organ-like chest, to a 
hostile St. John audience, as he entered on the great 
campaign. 

At this time the part of Arthur Hamilton Gordon 
(afterwards Lord Stranmore and uncle of the Earl of 
Aberdeen, recently Governor-General of Canada), 
Governor of New Brunswick, became a matter of im- 
portance. Gordon had opposed Confederation, but a 
visit to England gave him new light. Not long after 
the new Government of Albert J. Smith took office in 
1865, the Colonial Secretary wrote this advice to 
Gordon : 

198 



SIR LEONARD TILLEY 

"You will impress the strong and deliberate opin- 
ion of her Majesty's Government that it is an object 
much to be desired that all the British North American 
colonies should agree to unite in one government." 

A series of events then promoted a revulsion of feel- 
ing. Dissension sprang up in the Smith-Hatheway 
Cabinet. The Legislative Council, led by Peter 
Mitchell, in reply to the Speech from the Throne, 
endorsed union, and Governor Gordon accepted this 
Address without consulting his advisers. The Cabinet 
had no course but to resign, their resolution being forti- 
fied by a threatened Fenian invasion and by defeat in an 
important by-election. 

Governor Gordon, whose conduct has been criti- 
cized as contrary to the principles of responsible govern- 
ment, was now a firm friend of union and did not hesi- 
tate to stretch his powers to aid the cause. Lengthy 
correspondence took place between him and Premier 
A. J. Smith, in the course of which, writing on April 
12, 1866, Gordon said: 

"He has no doubt as to the course which it is his 
duty to pursue in obedience to his Sovereign's com- 
mands and in the interests of the people of British North 
America. His Excellency may be in error, but he 
believes that a vast change has already taken place in 
the opinions held on the subject in New Brunswick. 
He fully anticipates that the House of Assembly will 
yet return a response to the communication made to 
them not less favorable to the principle of union than 
that given by the Upper House, and in any event he 
relies with confidence on the desire of a great majority 

199 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

of the people of the Province to aid in building up a 
powerful and prosperous nation under the sovereignty 
of the British Crown. To this verdict his Excellency 
is perfectly ready to appeal."* 

Tilley watched the constitutional struggle from the 
cool shades of private life. He had been out of office 
for almost a year, but he was far from being out of 
touch. He had formed a warm friendship with John 
A. Macdonald, and on April 14, 1866, he wrote the 
Conservative leader an extended account of the situa- 
tion. He told of the break-up of the Smith Government 
through the quarrel with Governor Gordon, and the 
appeal to the country by Smith against the Governor's 
conduct in answering the Legislative Council's Address 
in favor of union before he consulted with his advisers. 

"Had the break-up occurred in any other way," he 
said, "we could without doubt have put the Nova Scotia 
resolutions through this House and have a majority to 
sustain the new Administration. As it is, I see nothing 
before us but a general election, and we shall have to 
fight the Opposition upon less favorable ground than 
we would if the simple question of Confederation was 
at issue. The new Government will probably be formed 
to-day, and I suppose I must go into it, and fight it out 
upon the Confederate line."t 

When the Smith Government resigned, the Gover- 
nor called on Peter Mitchell to form a Cabinet. 
Though Mitchell was an active unionist, he advised the 

*Life and Times of Sir Leonard Tilley, by James Hannay (St. 
John, 1897), P. 321. 

tSir John A. Macdonald: A Memoir, by Joseph Pope, Vol. I, 
P. 297. 

200 



SIR LEONARD TILLEY 

Governor that Tilley was the proper person to form an 
administration, but the latter declined on the ground 
that he was not a member of the Legislature. A Cabinet 
was then formed by Mitchell and R. D. Wilmot,* with 
Tilley as Provincial Secretary. The aggressive cam- 
paign was continued, and the elections returned a large 
majority for Confederation, the popular vote being 
55,665 for union and 33,767 against. The battle for 
Confederation was completed by the adoption of the 
Nova Scotia resolutions and the participation in the 
London Conference to frame the bill. In this Tilley 
had a part, though the delay in the arrival of the Can- 
adian delegates was a trying incident. Union was un- 
doubtedly hastened in New Brunswick by the Fenian 
scare, and was received in 1867 with more general 
approval than in Nova Scotia. 

Tilley's seventy-eight years of life epitomized the 
evolution of his Province. At his birth New Bruns- 
wick had but 50,000 people, and it was only 34 years 
since the Loyalist immigration reached the St. John 
Valley. Wooden buildings were universal, people 
cooked and warmed themselves by the open fireplace, 
homespun comprised everyone's clothing, and farm 
implements showed little advance on a thousand years 
before. Tilley lived to see New Brunswick with over 
300,000 inhabitants, its prosperous settlements border- 
ing the coasts and rivers, but its interior still largely in 
possession of the lumberman and the moose. St. John 

*Robert Duncan Wilmot, (1809-91), member of New Brunswick 
Parliament 1846-61 and 1865-67; member of Senate 1867-80; Lieutenant- 
Governor of New Brunswick 1880-85; Privy Councillor 1878-91. 

201 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

had become an important ocean port, and progress in 
manufacturing kept pace with farming. 

Tilley was born at Gagetown, a picturesque village 
on the St. John River, on May 8, 1818. His ancestors 
were Loyalists, his great-grandfather, Samuel Tilley, 
migrating from Long Island after the American Revo- 
lution. His father, Thomas Morgan Tilley, was a 
house joiner and builder. The youth attended the 
Gagetown Grammar School, and at 13, with soar- 
ing ambition, went to St. John, where he became 
an apprentice in Dr. Henry Cook's drug store. 
A little later he entered the store of William O. Smith, 
a shrewd business man of public spirit, from whom he 
derived many political ideas. A smart, active and 
pleasing youth, he attracted attention and soon joined 
the St. John Young Men's Debating Society, where, 
like many another public man, he had his first and most 
helpful training in public speaking. In 1 837 he enlisted 
in the cause of temperance, and his prominence in this 
did much to draw him into politics later. The next 
year he entered a drug partnership, and so successful 
was his business life, in the growing port of St. John, 
that when he retired in 1855 he was wealthy. Tilley's 
life-long belief in protection led him to support the can- 
didature in 1849 of B. Ansley on a high tariff platform. 
The following year he was a foremost member of the 
New Brunswick Railway League, an organization 
formed as a protest against the Legislature's failure to 
assist railways, and having a line from St. John to 
Shediac as its chief objective. In June of that year, 
after a useful municipal career, Tilley was elected to 

202 



SIR LEONARD TILLEY 

the Legislature during his absence from the city, and 
thereafter was never long free from public duties. 
Responsible government had just been won under the 
leadership of Lemuel A. Wilmot,* and a new era began. 

It is unnecessary to trace the deviations of New 
Brunswick politics in the early years of Tilley's public 
life. As in Canada, there were factions and defections 
during a period of shadowy party boundaries. After 
an absence of three sessions, Tilley was re-elected in 
1854 and entered the first Liberal Government of the 
Province, that of Charles Fisher,t who was also a 
Father of Confederation. In 1855 Tilley, prematurely, 
as it proved, implemented his temperance beliefs by 
putting through a bill prohibiting the importation, 
manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor. 

Surveying the conditions from this distance, 
Tilley's prohibition measure seems to have been the 
result of zeal rather than judgment. Those were the 
days of almost universal drinking. No social gather- 
ing was considered complete without it, and in that 
damp climate in the pioneer age, liquor was the "cure- 
all" for the ills of men. The square-rigged barques 
that carried timber to the seven seas returned with 
vinous and spirituous cargoes, the favorite being 
Jamaica rum from the West Indies. In 1838 the 120,- 

♦Lemuel Allan Wilmot, (1809-78), a progressive whose service ranks 
with that of Robert Baldwin in Upper Canada and Joseph Howe in Nova 
Scotia. He entered Parliament in 1834, achieved responsible government 
in 1848 and accepted a seat on the Bench in 1851. He was Lieutenant- 
Governor of New Brunswick from 1868 to 1873. 

+ Charles Fisher (1808-80) who assisted L. A. Wilmot in the fight for 
responsible government, sat in the New Brunswick Assembly, with short 
interruptions, from 1837 to 1868, after which he served as a Judge in the 
New Brunswick Supreme Court until his death. 

203 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

000 people of New Brunswick consumed 312,298 gal- 
lons of rum, gin and whiskey and 64,579 gallons of 
brandy. 

Tilley introduced his prohibition bill as a private 
member. It was first considered on March 19, and 
passed on the 27th. The narrow margin of 21 to 18 
should have warned the promoter, but on the last day 
of the year the supposed end of the reign of King 
Alcohol was celebrated by the pealing of bells at mid- 
night. It was not long before the law was seen to be 
a dead letter. There were 200 taverns in St. John and 
suburbs alone, and liquor continued to be sold. In 
a few months an unsympathetic Governor, H. T. 
Manners-Sutton, dissolved the Assembly, the Govern- 
ment was defeated and the new Gray-Wilmot Ministry 
repealed the act. Fisher and Tilley gained power again 
in 1857 and enacted much advanced legislation, includ- 
ing vote by ballot, the enlargement of the franchise and 
quadrennial parliaments. 

During his long public service Tilley was essen- 
tially the business man in politics. A man who could 
retire with a competency at 37 was one whose advice 
was sought by visionary and impractical politicians. 
His sound character and judgment put him in the fore- 
front wherever he happened to be. He took part in 
the early conferences at Quebec regarding the Interco- 
lonial Railway, the construction of which was greatly 
delayed by circumstances. He was an influential figure 
at the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences, and 
helped frame the B.N.A. Act in London. When he had 

204 



SIR LEONARD TILLEY 

at length secured the adoption of union in his own Pro- 
vince he turned his hand to the cause elsewhere. As so 
often happens in personal intercourse, the contrast 
between him and John A. Macdonald made them fast 
friends. In 1867, when forming his Confederation 
Cabinet, Macdonald asked Tilley to join and to 
choose his own colleague from New Brunswick. He 
entered as Minister of Customs and took Peter Mitchell 
as Minister of Marine and Fisheries. An important 
part was played by Tilley in 1868 in reconciling Howe 
and Nova Scotia to union. Howe had just returned 
from his fruitless quest in Britain for repeal. Tilley 
wrote Macdonald from Windsor, N.S., on July 17, that 
he had had breakfast with Howe and found him ready 
to consider Confederation if some concessions could be 
made. 

"The reasonable men," Tilley wrote, "want an 
excuse to enable them to hold back the violent and un- 
reasonable of their own party, and this excuse ought to 
be given them." He urged Macdonald to visit Nova 
Scotia at once, and said the nature of the concessions 
was not as important as the fact that concessions would 
be made. 

"I am not an alarmist," he added, "but the position 
can only be understood by visiting Nova Scotia. There 
is no use in crying peace when there is no peace. We 
require wise and prudent action at this moment; the 
most serious results may be produced by the opposite 
course." 

Macdonald was discerning enough to act upon 
this advice. He hastened to Halifax, made concessions 

205 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

to the anti-unionists, Howe joined his Cabinet, and 
serious trouble was avoided. 

Though originally a Liberal and responsible for 
some advanced legislation, Tilley was now firmly estab- 
lished in the political family of Sir John Macdonald. 
From February until November, 1873, he was Minister 
of Finance, resigning to become Lieutenant-Governor 
of New Brunswick. The barefoot messenger boy of 
1831 had come home in the trappings of a gilded gov- 
ernor, and he now had years of dignity and calm in his 
own Province. But the call of active politics was again 
to be heard and answered. 

After Sir John Macdonald and Sir Charles Tup- 
per had swept the Dominion in 1878. on the new 
National Policy platform, it fell to Tilley to introduce 
the new tariff. He had abandoned the ease and com- 
fort of Government House at Fredericton to return to 
the hurly-burly of political life. He became Minister 
of Finance in the joyous home-comin'g of the Conserva- 
tives, and on March 14 following enunciated the 
National Policy. His three hours' speech was some- 
what dreary, as he lacked the magic to make figures 
glow, but it stands as the argument for the policy which 
has persisted ever since with little modification. He 
could refer with truth to the depressed conditions which 
then existed. In 1873, he said, he could point with 
pride and satisfaction to the increased capital of the 
banks and the large dividends they paid. "To-day, I 
regret to say, we must point to depreciated values 
and to small dividends. Then I could point to the 

206 



SIR LEONARD TILLEY 

general prosperity of the country. To-day we must all 
admit that it is greatly depressed." 

What was afterwards for years denounced by the 
Liberals as the "Red Parlor" had its origin at this time. 
This was the consultation between the Government and 
the manufacturers as to the amount of protection vari- 
ous industries ought to have. 

"We have invited," said Tilley, "gentlemen from 
all parts of the Dominion and representing all the inter- 
ests in the Dominion, to assist us in the readjustment 
of the tariff, because we did not feel, though perhaps 
we possessed an average intelligence in ordinary govern- 
ment matters, we did not feel that we knew everything." 

The Government was confronted at the time with 
falling revenues, for the ad valorem duties generally 
in force in Canada made the customs receipts drop as 
values fell. Tilley said he regretted the necessity for 
increased taxation, but promised that taxation would 
be heavier on goods from foreign countries than from 
the mother country. So far as the United States was 
concerned he expressed no regret, for Canada had 
expected to lead them into better trade relations, but 
in vain. The new schedules, generally speaking, 
increased the rates from \7V2 per cent, to 20 and even 
to 40 per cent. Tilley said he thought these "would 
be ample protection to all who are seeking it and who 
have a right to expect it." 

"The time has arrived, I think," he said, "when it 
becomes our duty to decide whether the thousands of 
men throughout the length and breadth of this country 
who are unemployed shall seek employment in another 

207 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

country or shall find it in this Dominion; the time has 
arrived when we are to decide whether we shall be sim- 
ply hewers of wood and drawers of water; whether we 
shall be simply agriculturists raising wheat, and lum- 
bermen producing more lumber than we can use, or 
Great Britain and the United States will take from us at 
remunerative prices ; whether we will confine ourselves 
to the fisheries and certain other small industries and 
cease to be what we have been, and not rise to what I 
believe we are destined to be under wise and judicious 
legislation — or whether we will inaugurate a policy 
that will by its provisions say to the industries of the 
country : We will give you sufficient protection ; we will 
give you a market for what you can produce ; we will 
say that while our neighbors built up a Chinese wall, 
we will impose a reasonable duty upon their products 
coming into this country; at all events, we will main- 
tain for our agricultural and other products largely the 
market of our own Dominion. The time has certainly 
arrived when we must consider whether we will allow 
matters to remain as they are, with the result of being 
an unimportant and uninteresting portion of her 
Majesty's Dominions, or will rise to the position which 
I believe Providence has destined us to occupy by means 
which, I believe, though I may be over-sanguine, which 
the country believes are calculated to bring prosperity 
and happiness to the people, to give employment to the 
thousands who are unemployed, and to make this a 
great and prosperous country, as all desire and hope it 
will be." 



208 



SIR LEONARD TILLEY 

Sir Leonard (he had been knighted in 1879) con- 
tinued as Finance Minister until October 31, 1885, 
when failing vigor compelled him to resign as his "only 
chance of a measure of health and possibly a few more 
years of life." He was again appointed Lieutenant- 
Governor of New Brunswick, and continued to hold 
office for almost eight years further. He was now the 
victim of an incurable disease, and when he finally lay 
down the reins he knew he had not many years to live. 
He went in and out among his people for three years 
more, respected and loved by the thousands to whom 
he was personally known and for whose welfare he had 
always been solicitous. In June, 1896, his illness took 
a fatal turn, and he passed away on the 25th. Just 
before he lost consciousness on the 23 rd the first returns 
of the Dominion election which was to sweep his party 
from power were given him. At that moment they 
appeared favorable and the dying gladiator said : "I can 
go to sleep now; New Brunswick has done well." 

Thus passed a statesman whose life was an example 
and whose record was an inspiration. He was a lucid 
but not a brilliant speaker. He was a man of sense and 
judgment rather than emotion and display. He was 
honest and he ever looked for the good and noble in 
others. As New Brunswick's foremost son he takes his 
place among the greatest of the builders of the new 
Dominion. 



209 



PETER MITCHELL 




PETER MITCHELL 



PETER MITCHELL 

(1824-1899) 

PETER MITCHELL divides with Tilley the honor 
of luring timid New Brunswick into the path of 
Confederation. Later he assisted in breaking the lead- 
ing strings with which the mother country sought to 
guide the young Dominion, and to exercise too great 
control over her natural resources. For these duties 
he possessed qualities of stubbornness and dash which 
differed from the character of Tilley. Mitchell was 
a strong, dominating character, rough and ready, and 
not moderated by deference. Tilley was of a finer 
mould, gentlemanly and courteous. Mitchell was a 
shipbuilder and contractor, a man of the world ; Tilley 
was a druggist, a temperance advocate, and a devoted 
churchman. Mitchell's seventy-five years of life were 
crowded with business, politics and the enjoyment of 
life. His resolute character made him a force in any 
environment, but he did not accomplish the work nor 
reap the honors that his abilities warranted. Though 
counted by contemporaries an abler man than Tilley, he 
had less stability, and therefore less usefulness in an era 
of great issues and great men. Tilley was a gentle and 
loyal colleague of Sir John A. Macdonald; Mitchell 
was headstrong, quarrelled with Sir John, and naturally 
fell by the wayside. 

Peter Mitchell was a characteristic product of his 
environment and his time. He was born at Newcastle, 

213 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

N.B., on January 4, 1824. His parents, natives of Scot- 
land, had settled on the Miramichi six years previously. 
He was educated at the local grammar school, studied 
law, and was called to the Bar in 1848. The east coast 
of New Brunswick, then raw and new, was embarking 
in the lumber business, which has persisted to this day, 
and young Mitchell, with an energetic disposition, was 
soon immersed in lumbering, shipbuilding and other 
industrial vocations. As he had a ready tongue and was 
popular, he had made his first political speech at seven- 
teen, and was soon in politics. He was elected to the 
Legislative Assembly in 1856, where he remained four 
years. From 1860 until Confederation he sat in the 
Legislative Council, where he became a leader. In 
1867, on joining the federal Cabinet, he was appointed 
to the Senate. He left that silent chamber in 1874 for 
the House of Commons, but was defeated in 1 878. He 
sat again in the House from 1882 to 1891 and met his 
final defeat in 1896* 

Such a catalogue of dates gives a poor idea of the 
stormy career of this restless, often bitter, fighting 
Father of Confederation. Mitchell was not a party 
man. His leanings were Liberal, but he joined the 
Macdonald Cabinet, and he often referred to himself 
as "the third party." He was intractable and impatient 
of discipline. He was often irritating in manner, even 
causing annoyance to Sir John Macdonald, that master 
of men in their varied moods. On one occasion 
Mitchell threatened to hold up the Intercolonial Rail- 
way estimates until the Government paid for a cow, 

214 



PETER MITCHELL 

owned by a widow in New Brunswick, which had been 
killed by a train. The cow was paid for. 

Mitchell had a firm and resolute manner which 
impressed people. He spoke well, without notes, stood 
with his hands in his pockets, and came down hard on 
his heels by way of emphasis. He gave the impression 
of mental as well as physical power, and, though like- 
able, was as bold as a lion. 

Early in his public career Mitchell was an advo- 
cate of the union of the Provinces. He spoke with 
Howe, McGee and others at Port Robinson, Upper 
Canada, in September, 1862, and presented arguments 
for union when as yet such concrete suggestions were 
rare. Speaking of the people of New Brunswick, 
Mitchell then said: "They were prepared to go 
into anything and support anything which would ad- 
vance the character of the colonial possessions of Great 
Britain by bringing them into closer union. Disunited, 
these colonies were weak. United, acting together, gov- 
erned by one public sentiment, they would be powerful 
and strong, and so far from their attachment to Great 
Britain being weakened, would add lustre to her 
throne." 

By 1864 Mitchell was a considerable figure in New 
Brunswick, and attended the Charlottetown and Quebec 
Conferences to arrange the union scheme, and after- 
wards went to the London Conference, where he sup- 
ported Cartier against Macdonald in securing the adop- 
tion of a federal rather than a legislative union. 

Before the London Conference could be called, 

215 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Mitchell and Tilley passed through the first life-and- 
death struggle of the union scheme. It had been agreed 
to test public sentiment first in New Brunswick, but the 
Province was uninformed and unsympathetic; Tilley, 
then Premier, Mitchell and the other Ministers were 
defeated by three to one in March, 1865. 

"I thought at the time, and think still, that with 
proper management we ought not to have failed," 
Mitchell wrote years afterwards, "and believe the one 
chief cause of our failure was an injunction placed 
upon us of New Brunswick at the Quebec Conference 
that we were not to make public the conclusions of the 
conference until all the delegates had arrived at their 
several Provinces and had reported at headquarters, and 
in consequence of that silence the suspicions of the mem- 
bers and the people of our Province were excited and 
set the tide against us, and we were beaten."* 

Mitchell records that on the day the Cabinet 
resigned he prophesied in a conversation with Lieuten- 
ant-Governor Gordon, that a change of opinion would 
take place within twelve months. Subsequent com- 
munications between Mitchell and Governor Gordon 
had a most disturbing effect on New Brunswick politics. 
Gordon was recalled to England for a visit, and on his 
return he was seen to be a convert to the union cause, 
under pressure from the Home Government. The Gov- 
ernment of Albert J. Smith was in power, and Tilley 
and Mitchell were spreading the doctrines of Confed- 
eration among the people. 

♦Reminiscences of Hon. Peter Mitchell, Toronto News, February 
15, 1894. 

216 



PETER MITCHELL 

Mitchell, in his reminiscences, sets forth that 
Gordon called him to Fredericton and asked him if he 
would support Smith, who, Gordon believed, "could 
be persuaded to agree to certain terms of union," and 
wished Mitchell to take a seat in Smith's Government, 
the Premier being anxious for it. Mitchell replied that 
he could not do that, as Smith had been elected by an 
overwhelming majority against union only six or seven 
months before. "I said," Mitchell writes, "that, while 
I would not go into his Government, I would undertake, 
on behalf of the party I represented — as I was more of 
a patriot than a politician or partisan — to induce our 
party to support Mr. Smith in that measure if he was 
sincere — which I told the Governor I doubted — 
although by so doing he would forego all the immense 
patronage which the first Government of Confedera- 
tion would have at the disposal of New Brunswick." 

Negotiations proceeded, and when Mitchell insisted 
on a paragraph approving Confederation being inserted 
in the Speech from the Throne when the Legislature 
met, the members on the Government side balked — as 
Mitchell expected — and the Cabinet resigned. Mitchell 
states that his steps were taken after consultation with 
Tilley and Charles Fisher, but when the crisis came 
Tilley would not take the Premiership and risk another 
defeat at the polls. 

"So there was nothing left for it," Mitchell writes, 
with no evidence of self-effacement, "but to accept it 
myself. And I did, and Mr. Tilley seconded me ably 
and well. I believed we would succeed, and after going 
to the country on the very same issue on which our Gov- 

217 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

ernment was defeated nine months before, I came back 
with a majority behind me of nearly four to one, and 
thus was the most active and principal means of carry- 
ing Confederation." 

Passage of the Confederation resolutions was then 
but a formality, and Mitchell went with Tilley into the 
first Federal Cabinet. 

One of the earliest and greatest struggles for Mari- 
time Province men at Ottawa concerned the route of the 
Intercolonial Railway. Its construction was a part of 
the Confederation agreement, for the shreds and patches 
of the new union could not subsist on summer communi- 
cation only. Mitchell favored the route along Bay de 
Chaleur and the east coast, while Tilley wanted the rail- 
way to follow the St. John River, or central, route, 
which was the more fertile and populous. The question 
became an acute one, and seriously threatened the Gov- 
ernment's stability, owing to the strength at Tilley's dis- 
posal from the Opposition ranks.* 

In the end, the argument in favor of the east coast 
route, supported by a recommendation from Mr. (after- 
wards Sir) Sandford Fleming, the engineer in charge, 
prevailed for military reasons. Mitchell's force of 
character no doubt had much to do with the decision, 
as he himself freely admits. 

"Mr. Tilley knew the difficulty," he writes, "but 
being pledged to the southern route, and I to the 

*Mr. William Houston, of Toronto, an intimate journalistic friend 
of Alexander Mackenzie, informed the writer that Mr. Mackenzie, who 
was then leading the Liberals in the House of Commons, told him that 
he had offered Tilley the solid support of the Opposition in favor of 
the St. John River route, but Tilley, for some reason, did not force the 
issue and accept it. 

218 



PETER MITCHELL 

northern, he would have much preferred a River St. 
John man to myself (for the Cabinet), and I believe 
intended to take him. We had some very angry words 
over it, but my force of character settled the matter." 

Though Mitchell was Premier of New Brunswick 
during the last, and successful, stage of the Confedera- 
tion battle, John A. Macdonald looked upon Tilley as 
the real leader, and in 1867 asked him to join the first 
Dominion Cabinet and to choose his own colleague 
from his own Province, and this slight in favor of one 
whom Mitchell tersely terms as "my subordinate" 
forms one of several indictments which he makes 
against Macdonald in his reminiscences. He wrote the 
Dominion Premier in protest, and says he received an 
apologetic reply. At least it is unthinkable that Mac- 
donald could not rise to such a situation, for political 
jealousies were one of his most frequent subjects of 
trouble — and adjustment. When Mitchell arrived to 
claim his portfolio there were only two left, Secretary 
of State for the Provinces and Marine and Fisheries, in 
neither of which posts was there anything to do, Mac- 
donald told him. But Mitchell took the latter, and to 
his everlasting credit he found much to do. It was a 
new department, and he laid it out along bold and ener- 
getic lines. He established lighthouses and other aids 
to navigation on lake and sea coast, and organized the 
first fleet of cruisers for the protection of Canadian 
fisheries. 

It was as the advocate of Canadian rights in regard 
to fisheries that Mitchell advanced self-government 

219 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

another important stage. In his despatches in this con- 
nection he gave the keynote for subsequent negotiations 
which put a curb on the encroachments of the United 
States in her dealings with Canada. He was a thor- 
ough enthusiast in his attitude towards Canadian fish- 
eries. "As a national possession they are inestimable," 
he wrote in 1870, "and as a field for industry and enter- 
prise they are inexhaustible." 

Mitchell's despatch to the Imperial Government 
in the same year firmly set forth Canada's position re- 
garding the ownership of her fisheries. He pointed out 
that in the previous December the Canadian Cabinet 
had approved a report by him, in which he declined to 
act on the suggestion of Her Majesty's Government 
that Canada should open her coasting trade to the United 
States, as Great Britain had done, while the United 
States continued to close theirs against Canada. The 
true policy of Canada, he insisted, was to retain all the 
privileges it then possessed until fresh negotiations in 
regard to trade relations might reopen the whole 
question. 

Mitchell's concluding words in his report to Coun- 
cil sound like a Bill of Rights declared against the 
mother country. He said : 

"The active protection of our fisheries was the first 
step in our national policy, as viewed from the colonial 
standpoint, and has since been followed up by legisla- 
tion which has imposed certain charges upon shipping 
and imposts upon articles of trade. It should, however, 
be clearly understood that these restrictions and charges 
we are prepared to remove whenever the United States 

220 



PETER MITCHELL 

are prepared to give us reciprocal treatment. Till then, 
the public sentiment of this country calls for vigorous 
action at the hands of the Canadian Government, and 
demands that this, the greatest and largest question of 
them all, and one which our neighbors most appreciate, 
shall be dealt with with spirit and vigor and form part 
of an important national policy. . . . 

"As part of the Empire, Canada is entitled to de- 
mand that her rights should be preserved intact, and at 
least it cannot be said that Council will have performed 
its duties if we silently permit ourselves to be divested of 
them piecemeal, as is the case with our fishery interests, 
and the people consider that their valuable fisheries are 
a trust incident to Canada, and involve interests which 
Her Majesty holds for the benefit of her loyal subjects, 
and which should not be abandoned nor their protec- 
tion neglected." 

In 1870 Mitchell engaged in a controversy with 
President Grant over Canada's fishing rights, and pub- 
lished a reply to Grant's message to Congress on the 
subject. He also rendered lasting service by arranging 
for the fisheries arbitration at Halifax, which resulted 
in an award of $4,500,000 to Canada for the use of Can- 
adian fisheries by United States fishermen. 

Though Mitchell as a Liberal had joined the Mac- 
donald Cabinet, he was not within its inner councils. 
At the end of the session of 1873, he says, he asked Sir 
John to allow him to resign, as he felt he had been 
slighted, but was persuaded to remain until after the 
recess. Meantime the Pacific Scandal storm broke in 

221 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

all its intensity. Mitchell hastened to Ottawa, but 
declares he was given no explanation, and had no infor- 
mation except what all could read in the newspapers. 
In the House, after it was called, the charges and replies 
dragged on for days, but Mitchell declined to speak in 
defence. One dramatic incident, however, he witnessed 
and describes. There was much concern over the 
expected speech and attitude of Donald A. Smith 
(afterwards Lord Strathcona), and Mitchell, at Tup- 
per's request, arranged an interview between Macdon- 
ald and Smith with a view to a reconciliation. When 
Smith came from Macdonald's room the failure of the 
purpose was evident. Mitchell says : 

"I saw by the expression and color of his face that 
he was very much excited, and I feared it was all up 
with us. Mr. Smith came along to where I sat and said 
to me: 

" *Oh! Mitchell, he*s an awful man, that. He has 
done nothing but swear at me since I went into the 
room.' 

"Mr. Smith said : *I don't want to vote against your 
Government, and particularly on your account, Mr. 
Mitchell, because you have always treated me very 
fairly, but there is nothing else for me to do, and I will 
have to do it.' " 

Smith's arraignment of the Government that night 
marked the turning point, and the Government resigned 
next day. 

Mitchell's later years were somewhat embittered 
and uneventful. He used to say that, after all, there was 
222 



PETER MITCHELL 

small satisfaction in serving one's country, for no matter 
what one did it soon forgot one. He became proprietor 
of the Montreal Herald in 1885, but took little part 
in its editorial management. He was not in Parliament 
after 1891, and after unsuccessfully seeking an appoint- 
ment from the Conservative Government, was made 
Inspector of Fisheries for Quebec, New Brunswick and 
Nova Scotia by the Laurier Government in March, 
1 897. He was then an old man, and lived by himself at 
the Windsor Hotel in Montreal. In the summer of 
1899 he had a partial stroke of paralysis while in 
Ottawa, but afterwards went about apparently in good 
health. On October 25 the second attack came, and 
the next morning he was found dead in his room at the 
hotel. 

Peter Mitchell was buried in his native town of 
Newcastle, N.B., and though he had outlived nearly all 
of his political contemporaries, his death removed a 
valiant, if stormy statesman, whose services become 
more significant as the years pass. 



223 



SIR ALBERT J. SMITH 



IS 




SIR ALBERT J. SMITH 



SIR ALBERT J. SMITH 

(1822-1883) 

WHEN the Confederation wave at last swept New 
Brunswick in 1866, it broke down the dykes of 
fear and jealousy carefully reared by Albert J. Smith 
when he defeated Tilley and the unionist government 
a year earlier. Smith was a powerful influence in the 
anti-Confederation party, and led in the campaign of 
indignation, on the platform and in newspapers and 
pamphlets, after the Quebec Conference. It was a cam- 
paign in which Canada was pictured as a great, over- 
powering neighbor, ready to swallow the little Mari- 
time Provinces. New Brunswick people were told that 
under Confederation they would have no country. 
Much was made of the financial needs of Canada and 
cf the secrecy which had surrounded the negotiations. 
Thus warned of ills they knew not of, the electors struck 
the first blow at the agreement by defeating the Tilley 
Government in March, 1865, less than six months after 
the Quebec Conference. 

Wreckage brought down by Smith, the country 
lawyer from Dorchester, was then salvaged by the 
patient apothecary from St. John, Samuel Leonard Til- 
ley, and the battle began over again. It did not end 
until Lieutenant-Governor Gordon had strained the 
constitution by acting outside the advice of Premier 
Smith and his Cabinet, and until Smith had exhausted 
his resources in standing for responsible government 

227 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

as he understood it. It was a case of the end justifying 
the means. Arthur H. Gordon, the Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor, had been opposed to union, or at least to the larger 
scheme. Some said he favored a union of the Mari- 
time Provinces with himself at its head. He was 
recalled to England on a visit, and when he returned 
his views had changed. 

"I am further instructed to express to you," he told 
the Legislature in his Speech from the Throne in 
March, 1866, "the strong and deliberate opinion of Her 
Majesty's Government that it is an object much to be 
desired that all the British North American Colonies 
should agree to unite in one government." 

It is clear from his own reminiscences that Peter 
Mitchell was responsible for the insertion of this para- 
graph.* He was the pro-Confederation leader of the 
Legislative Council who was pulling the strings, and 
who brought the fall of the Smith Cabinet. The para- 
graph favoring Confederation caused surprise, in view 
of the election of the Government the year before on an 
anti-union platform. When it was read in the House 
the crowd outside the bar broke into a cheer. This was 
an ominous circumstance for the Ministry. A. R. Wet- 
more, elected as an anti-unionist and a supporter of the 
Government, went over to the other side. Opposition 
developed in other quarters, and a want of confidence 
motion was debated for three weeks. 

Meantime, the crisis was developing in the Legisla- 
tive Council. The unionist plot — not using the word 
in an offensive sense — was coming to a head. As it 

♦Toronto News, Feb. 15, 1894. 

228 



SIR ALBERT J. SMITH 

proceeded, Albert J. Smith doubtless felt the presence, 
as behind a curtain, of the masterful figure of Peter 
Mitchell, with whom Governor Gordon was taking 
counsel as he proceeded. Another circumstance tended 
to place Smith at a disadvantage. Early in 1866 he had 
accompanied delegates from Canada and Nova Scotia 
to Washington to seek a renewal of the reciprocity 
treaty, and while he was absent the unionist leaders 
made headway with their plans. They had also gained 
ground during Smith's absence the previous year in 
England, whither he had gone with J. C. Allen to 
oppose the terms of union and to further the construc- 
tion of the St. John & Shediac Railway to the Nova 
Scotia boundary. Events hastened to a climax in the 
Spring of 1866. The Smith Ministry, united only in 
their opposition to union, and composed of men of 
diverse parties and beliefs, had internal difficulties; an 
important by-election in York had been lost, the people 
were learning the real terms of union, and suddenly they 
were confronted with the Fenian enemy at their very 
gates. It was like the blast of a bugle. One thou- 
sand men were enrolled at once and sent to the Maine 
frontier, where they remained for three months, but 
the invasion did not materialize. As one New B runs- 
wicker recently phrased it, "All the old women of both 
sexes got frightened." The danger served to solidify 
union sentiment, for we find Mr. Tilley later replying 
to Mr. Smith in the Legislature, "dwelling on the im- 
pression of power which union would have on the minds 
of those abroad who were plotting our ruin."* 

*History of New Brunswick, by James Hannay, Vol. II. 

229 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Mitchell had been asked by Governor Gordon to 
support Smith in securing union, and had agreed, 
though he doubted Smith's sincerity in professing to 
favor Confederation, after attaining office on the 
opposite policy. Interviews followed, and the para- 
graph appeared in the Governor's speech as an evidence 
of good faith, though it alienated more of the Govern- 
ment's supporters. Debate in the House dragged, but 
in the Legislative Council an address favoring union 
was passed, and Gordon, with immoderate haste, made 
ready to accept and transmit it, with an endorsation of 
its sentiments. On the morning of April 7 Premier 
Smith called and told the Governor he ought simply to 
transmit the address. In the afternoon the Premier 
was again summoned to the Government House, when 
the Governor told him that he intended to receive the 
Legislative Council at 3 o'clock. Smith again protested, 
and to the suggestion that he drive down to the Assem- 
bly and consult his colleagues he replied that that was 
impossible as a debate on a want of confidence motion 
was going on and they could not leave the House. 

The sands in the Smith Administration glass had 
now all but run out. The Legislative Council was 
already in the building, including the redoubtable 
Mitchell. Mr. Smith, having refused responsibility for 
the Governor's reply to the address, went away, and 
two days later the Government resigned. Smith had 
been squeezed out of office while he had still a majority 
in the House. A bolder politician might have fared 
better and given the Governor an unpleasant time. 

230 



SIR ALBERT J. SMITH 

Let us see what it cost in damage to the constitu- 
tion to carry Confederation in New Brunswick. The 
Cabinet's remonstrance maintained that the Governor's 
action in replying to the Council's address without con- 
sulting his advisers was not "in accordance with the true 
spirit of the constitution." They claimed that in a 
measure involving an organic change in the constitution, 
and political rights and privileges of the people, the 
people should be consulted. They reminded the Gov- 
ernor that the Quebec Scheme had been condemned by 
the people at the last election, that it had been subse- 
quently condemned in the Assembly by twenty-nine to 
ten ; that the Legislative Council, a body not elected by 
the people, had no right to ask for legislation the Assem- 
bly had rejected; that such proceeding violates every 
principle of responsible and self-government, is sub- 
versive of the rights and liberties of the people, and seeks 
to take from them their constitution not only without 
their consent but against their clearly expressed wishes. 
As a parting thrust, this outspoken letter accused the 
Governor of "having taken the advice, as they truly 
believe, of a gentleman of the Opposition as to the 
answer given to the Legislative Council on Saturday last 
instead of that of your constitutional advisers," and 
"they would respectfully express their conviction that 
such a course was unconstitutional and without prece- 
dent in any country where responsible government 
exists." They thereupon resigned in a body. 

There was acid, too, in Governor Gordon's reply. 
He said the Ministers' reasoning would go far to de- 
stroy the position of the Legislative Council as a co- 

231 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

ordinate branch of the Legislature, a branch whose 
opinion had been asked, and whose opinion could be 
given without waiting for the views of the other House. 
The Governor reminded his advisers that their Minister- 
ial responsibility was something "from which it is 
always in their power to escape," and said that the non- 
communication to the Cabinet of the reply in question 
was the result, not of design, but of accident, as it had 
been his intention to afford them a sufficient opportun- 
ity for its consideration. He added that his words by 
no means conveyed approval of that particular scheme 
for union, and that from previous communications with 
the leader of the Government he was entitled to assume 
that that hope was shared by the Cabinet. 

Governor Gordon accused his late Ministers of 
vacillation in the cause they pretended to uphold. He 
reminded Mr. Smith that he had agreed to refer the 
question to a joint committee of both Houses, with the 
understanding that that committee should report in 
favor of a measure of union. Due weight was to be 
given to the objections raised to the scheme. Smith 
had left Fredericton to consult his party, the Governor 
said, and all seemed well, but after the Legislature met 
there had been little indication of movement toward 
union. 

"His Excellency," says the memorandum, "has 
never ceased to urge on Mr. Smith the expediency, and 
even the necessity, of a bold avowal of his intended 
policy, nor has he failed to express his apprehension as 
to the consequence of delay in so doing, believing that 
until that avowal was made Mr. Smith would become 

232 



SIR ALBERT J. SMITH 

daily more and more entangled in contradictory pledges 
from which he would find it impossible to extricate 
himself, and which might act most prejudicially on the 
prospects of the cause." 

The Governor added that it had become more and 
more apparent that the Ministers lacked the power — he 
would not say they lacked the will — to carry out their 
original intention, and he would accept their resigna- 
tions, believing that a vast change had already taken 
place in the opinions of the people on the subject. 

Smith, as befitted a man who entered the Legisla- 
ture in 1854 as a Liberal opponent of the Tory Family 
Compact of the day in New Brunswick, had stood up 
manfully for responsible government, but the issue was 
too great for that obstruction. 

The Cabinet resigned on April 9, the Fenians 
arrived at Eastport on the Maine-New Brunswick 
border on the 10th, the elections followed in May and 
June, and the Government of Peter Mitchell won a 
great victory. The Legislature met on June 21 and by 
July 7 had adopted the Confederation resolutions and 
prorogued. The main Confederation resolution was in 
the following terrris : 

"Resolved that an humble address be presented to 
his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, praying that 
his Excellency be pleased to appoint delegates to unite 
with the delegates from the other Provinces in arrang- 
ing with the Imperial Government for the Union of 
British North America upon such terms as will secure 
the just rights and interests of New Brunswick, accom- 
panied with provision for the immediate construction of 

233 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

the Intercolonial Railway; each Province to have an 
equal voice in such delegation, Upper and Lower Can- 
ada to be considered as separate Provinces." 

Attorney- General Charles Fisher's brief speech 
brought a reply — a last futile protest — from Mr. 
Smith, who was now leader of the Opposition, lasting 
almost two days. Mr. Smith objected to giving dele- 
gates power to fix the destinies of the Provinces forever 
without again submitting the union scheme to the 
people. He also criticized the constitution of the 
Upper House of the proposed union parliament, de- 
claring that each Province should have an equal num- 
ber of representatives in it, as was the case in the United 
States. He moved an amendment to the effect that 
no act or measure for a union with Canada take effect 
until approved by the Legislature or the people of the 
Province. 

As soon as the Confederation resolutions were 
passed, Mr. Smith moved a resolution which included 
provisions for an equal number of Legislative Council- 
lors (as the Senators were then termed) from each Pro- 
vince, that the number of representatives in the federal 
Parliament be limited, that a court be established to 
settle disputes between the federal and local govern- 
ments, that New Brunswick be exempted from taxation 
for the construction and enlargement of canals in Upper 
Canada, and for other things. Following this he 
delivered a lengthy pessimistic speech, declaring Con- 
federation was a great experiment at best and that the 
Government was acting in a most high-handed manner. 

New Brunswick's delegation to the London Con- 

234 



SIR ALBERT J. SMITH 

ference consisted of S. L. Tilley, R. D. Wilmot, Charles 
Fisher, Peter Mitchell, J. M. Johnson, and E. B. 
Chandler. The delicate relations still existing with 
Canada were further strained by the weary wait of 
several months in London for the Canadian representa- 
tives, who were delayed by John A. Macdonald's ill- 
health, and by other causes not well defined. The battle 
was won, and Albert J. Smith moved to another arena. 

Easy material conditions made it possible for Mr. 
Smith to devote long years to the public service. He 
had been born in the village of Shediac, Westmoreland 
County, on March 12, 1822, of Loyalist descent. He 
attended the local grammar school, and later became a 
student in the law office of E. B. Chandler,* afterwards 
a Father of Confederation, and a Lieutenant-Governor 
of New Brunswick. He was called to the Bar in 1847, 
and opening an office in Dorchester, soon developed a 
profitable practice. Young Smith had qualities for 
public life which found a ready outlet in an era when 
many men afterwards famous were responding to the 
public call. He was elected to the Assembly in 1852 as 
a Liberal, and two years later joined Charles Fisher, 
W. J. Ritchie, and S. L. Tilley in forming the first 
Liberal government of the Province. They went out of 
office after the failure of the prohibition bill in 1856, 
but were returned the following year on a deadlock 

♦Edward Barron Chandler, (1800-80), a Father of Confederation, 
was in public life, in one sphere or another, from 1827 until his death 
while Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick. He was a man of high 
integrity, a Conservative of the old school, and was identified with most 
of the leading events of his Province for almost half a century. 

235 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

being reached. In 1862 Smith became Attorney-Gen- 
eral, but resigned a year later on disagreeing with his 
colleagues on matters connected with the construction 
of the Intercolonial Railway. He objected to the terms 
by which his Province was to pay three and one-half 
twelfths of the cost, which he considered too high a pro- 
portion. As the Intercolonial was a part of the union 
scheme, his opposition to both was at least consistent. 

When Albert Smith's battle against Confederation 
had ended in defeat, he, like most of the leading oppon- 
ents in other Provinces, cheerfully accepted the situa- 
tion and lived to render useful service under the new 
constitution. He was elected to the House of Commons 
in 1867 and gave a nominal support to Sir John Mac- 
donald until 1873, when he assisted the Liberals in their 
efforts to uncover the Pacific Scandal. On the Mac- 
kenzie Government's succession to office. Smith became 
Minister of Marine and Fisheries in succession to Peter 
Mitchell, his old antagonist in the union battle. 
During his four years of office Smith rendered one not- 
able service in the preparation of the evidence for, and 
attendance at, the sittings of the Halifax Fisheries Con- 
ference in 1877. This resulted in an award of $5,500,- 
000 for Canada and Newfoundland, to be paid by the 
United States for the use of fisheries. For this work 
Smith was knighted in 1879. His public life, marked 
by honor and uprightness at every turn, closed in an 
unexpected defeat in 1882, after fourteen victories in 
his native county of Westmoreland, and an unbroken 
service of thirty years. The voting element of the rid- 
ing had changed, and the warrior's lack of contact with 

236 



SIR ALBERT J. SMITH 

the people lessened his popularity. His health was seen 
to be broken, his lack of physical exercise contributing 
to this end, and he passed away, at the age of 61, in 
Dorchester, on June 30, 1883. 

Sir Albert Smith was a man of popular traits and 
a persuasive speaker. Though successful with juries, he 
largely abandoned law for business and shipping in his 
adopted home of Dorchester, and amassed considerable 
wealth. He was a sincere and ready debater, and met 
the attacks of opponents with grace and without bitter- 
ness. Though a man of energy and industry, for one of 
his portly body, he was cautious and hesitant in matters 
of policy. His opposition to Confederation was part 
of his opposition to change of any kind. He became 
naturally the exponent of a policy of doubt on the 
question of union, which was swept away only as the 
true terms became known, and the Fenian horde on the 
frontier made unity appear the only safeguard for 
national well-being. 



237 



NOVA SCOTIA 

SIR CHARLES TUPPER 
JOSEPH HOWE 
WILLIAM ANNAND 



SIR CHARLES TUPPER 



16 




SIR CHARLES TUPPER 



SIR CHARLES TUPPER 

(1821-1915) 

SIR CHARLES TUPPER was a statesman of vision 
and a party general of audacity. His name recalls 
thunder on the hustings, strength to wavering Cabinet 
Ministers, and a will to see-it- through in any cause he 
undertook. He initiated and carried Confederation in 
a rebellious Nova Scotia, he promoted the National 
Policy in the Dominion, he fathered and defended the 
Canadian Pacific Railway through perilous years of 
obstruction. No Canadian politician has had more hard, 
disagreeable tasks, but to each he brought a dashing 
courage which usually swept all before it. For fifty 
years he was a storm-centre in politics, and no matter 
how threatening the gale, he braced his feet, like a 
fisherman bound for the Grand Banks, and faced the 
danger without flinching. No speaker could still him, 
no audience terrify this veteran of a hundred battles. 
Now he used a stream of invective, again he tripped an 
enemy with fox-like cunning. He lived and thrived in 
an age of strong words. Nova Scotians were weary- 
ing of ornate orators, and his energy and bluster were as 
invigorating as a northwest wind. His deadly earnest- 
ness carried weight, his fighting manner roused friends 
and cowed his more meek opponents. 

"I hare been defeated by the future leader of the 
Conservative party," said Joseph Howe in 1855, when 
the young country doctor carried Cumberland for the 

243 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Assembly. From then until his death, sixty years later, 
Charles Tupper was never long from sight. Conserva- 
tives linked him with Macdonald for his capacity and 
his achievements. Liberals hated and denounced him 
for his egotism and his political methods, but they never 
ignored him. As party feeling subsides, his foresight 
and resolution, his devotion to national and Imperial 
causes, win praise from every party. 

"In my judgment," said Sir Wilfrid Laurier in 
1916, "the chief characteristic of Tupper was courage; 
courage which no obstacle could down, which rushed to 
the assault, and which, if repulsed, came back to the 
combat again and again; courage which battered and 
hammered, perhaps not always judiciously, but always 
effectively; courage which never admitted defeat, and 
which in the midst of overwhelming disaster ever main- 
tained the proud carriage of unconquerable defiance."* 

J. A. Macdonald and Charles Tupper first met at 
the Confederation Conferences in 1864. They became 
firm friends, and until the former's death constantly 
co-operated and supplemented each other. When Nova 
Scotia refused the Quebec resolutions it was Tupper's 
duty to win over his Province. It was a three years' 
task, but he never hesitated. When the Macdonald 
Government staggered under the Pacific Scandal 
charges in 1873, Tupper rushed to the defence in a 
lengthy speech, and persuaded Macdonald not to resign 
the leadership. In 1880 he joined in negotiating the 
Canadian Pacific contract, and when its prodigality was 
attacked he was its most unreserved defender. In 

*Sir Wilfrid Laurier, in House of Commons, February 17, 1916. 

244 



SIR CHARLES TUPPER 

December, 1883, Sir John cabled Sir Charles, who was 
then in London: "Pacific in trouble: you should be 
here." Next morning came the reply: "Sailing on 
Thursday." In 1886 Sir John heard unfavorable news 
of the political outlook in Nova Scotia, and wrote: 
"I cannot too strongly urge upon you the absolute neces- 
sity of your coming out at once, and do not like to con- 
template the evil consequences of your failing to do so." 
Sir John's last Macedonian cry was in January, 1891, 
when he cabled: "Your presence during election con- 
test in Maritime Provinces essential to encourage our 
friends. Please come. Answer."* The war horse 
promptly responded, and in a few days "walked down 
the gangplank at New York with his usual springy 
step," 

"After me the deluge," Sir John Macdonald had 
said, and despite a pervading feeling for years that 
at his death Tupper would take the leadership, this 
was not the case. His hour came in the crisis of his 
party in 1896, when the Orangemen rose against the 
Remedial Bill of Sir Mackenzie Bowell's Government, 
for the benefit of the Roman Catholics of Manitoba. 
Tupper, summoned from England to take the Premier- 
ship at seventy-five, dashed into the fray like a regiment 
01 cavalry. He faced a frightened Cabinet just recover- 
ing from wholesale resignations, and met storms of 
"boos" from audiences of once subservient Conserva- 
tives. In Toronto, he fought for hours with a turbu- 
lent crowd who refused a hearing in that party strong- 
hold. The Government was defeated by the Liberals 

♦The Day of Sir John Macdonald, by Sir Joseph Pope, P. 172. 

245 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

under Wilfrid Laurier. Tupper lingered four years 
as Opposition leader, when, after another defeat, he 
sought the repose he had well earned. 

It is significant that a political career so marked 
by stress should have begun in storm. Most of us can 
recall some red-headed boy who was always in a fight 
if there was one. Charles Tupper had a genius for 
either finding or making a political squabble. In 
March, 1852, he entered the campaign in Cumberland 
in support of T. A. De Wolfe. His first speech, at a 
little rural meeting, was so impressive that he was per- 
suaded to make De Wolfe's nomination speech the next 
day. Here a dispute took place as to who should speak 
first, the nominators or the candidates. An unseemly 
row followed, lasting for an hour, in which young 
Tupper took his full part. Joseph Howe was one of 
the opposing candidates, and the warfare which then 
began lasted for nearly twenty years. 

It is a matter of surprise that when Tupper entered 
the political arena, and for twenty years afterwards, he 
was exceedingly nervous before rising to speak, though 
his timidity soon left him once he was on his feet. "I 
did not sleep much that night," he wrote of the hours 
preceding that first nomination speech, "and was so 
nervous the next morning that I threw up my break- 
fast on the way to the corner where the nomination was 
to take place." 

Tupper and Howe had met just previously under 
peculiar circumstances. Dr. George Johnson, after- 
wards Dominion Statistician, related in the Halifax 

246 



SIR CHARLES TUPPER 

Herald in 1909 that the future rivals both happened in 
his father's house one night. When nine o'clock arrived 
the elder Johnson, as w^as his custom, conducted family 
v^^orship. The visitors knelt v^ith the household and 
heard the devout host invoke "the blessing of heaven 
upon the tw^o strangers w^ithin the gate, and ask that they 
might be animated w^ith a strong sense of duty in their 
public life." 

Tupper at this time was a busy and prosperous 
country doctor, w^ith a decided aptitude for politics. 
He had been born in Amherst, July 2, 1821, of Puri- 
tan stock v^rhich emigrated from England to America in 
1635, and from Connecticut to Cornwallis, N.S., in 
1763, taking possession of land vacated by Acadians 
expelled in 1755. Charles w^as a precocious youth, and 
relates of his own childhood : "I do not remember when 
I commenced the study of Latin, but when I was seven 
years old I had read the whole Bible aloud to my 
father." He had the same self-confidence and pugna- 
city that marked his later years, and in his journal 
describes a combat with the mate of a schooner who 
smoked to the windward of the youth. The mate was 
laid up for three days.* 

Young Tupper's medical education in Edinburgh 
was thorough, and he was soon firmly established as a 
local practitioner. "In person," says Edward Manning 
Saunders, "he was of medium height, straight, muscu- 
lar, wiry and had intense nervous energy, which gave 
him quickness of movement and ceaseless mental 

*Life and Letters of Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Tupper, Edited by E. M. 
Saunders, (Cassell & Co.), P. 7. 

247 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

activity. . . . In his sleigh, carriage or saddle, he 
went from place to place, sometimes in deep and drifted 
snow, and at other times in mud more difficult than the 
worst snow drifts. In twelve years of practice before 
he was called into the sphere of politics, mountainous 
obstacles became a level plain and toil and exposure 
the highest enjoyment."* 

Fortune decreed that the practice of medicine, for 
which the young doctor was so well fitted, was to play 
a small part in his life. After 1855 he was in politics to 
stay, and save a few years in Toronto, when in Opposi- 
tion in the 'seventies, he gave little time to his profes- 
sion. 

Tupper's rise in Nova Scotia politics was of that 
rapid character that marks a strong personality of a 
fresh cast of mind. His defeat of Howe in Cumber- 
land in 1855 astounded the Province, and cast the first 
shadow over the future of that popular idol, the man 
whom Sir Wilfrid Laurier has described as "the most 
potent influence in Nova Scotia, and perhaps the bright- 
est impersonation of intellect that ever adorned the halls 
of the Canadian Legislature." The Conservative 
leader, J. W. Johnstone,t was advancing in years and 
wished to retire. He was ready to give Tupper his post, 
but to this the young doctor would not listen. They 
compromised by Johnstone remaining leader and Tup- 

*Three Premiers of Nova Scotia, by Edward Manning Saunders, 
P. 270. 

tjames William Johnstone, (1792-1873), a former Premier of Nova 
Scotia, a rival of Howe, a courtly figure of the "old school" and an oppon- 
ent of responsible government. He favored Confederation, but was 
appointed to the Bench in 1863, before the struggle began. 

248 



SIR CHARLES TUPPER 

per doing most of the work. In his first session at Hali- 
fax in 1856, Tupper spoke out boldly and declared: 

"I did not come here to play the game of follow my 
leader. I did not come here the representative of any 
particular party, bound to vote contrary to my own con- 
victions, but to perform honestly and fearlessly, to the 
best of my ability, my duty to my country." 

In his first month in the Assembly the Opposition 
strength rose from 15 to 22. Thenceforward he was 
in the muddy stream of Nova Scotia politics, with its 
perplexing local issues, until the Confederation move- 
ment loomed up, largely at his own bidding, to over- 
shadow all other topics. From this party's defeat in 1859 
to their return to office in 1863 Tupper maintained a 
running fire of attack on the Government. On his 
return to office he introduced and passed in 1864 a 
measure of permanent value, providing for compul- 
sory education in Nova Scotia. 

Confederation was too large and complicated a 
movement to be the creation of any one man. It was the 
result of a combination of men and circumstances. In 
its accomplishment, Tupper ranks with Brown, Mac- 
donald and Cartier, and in giving it its first concrete 
impetus he stands alone. Premier Johnstone of Nova 
Scotia, with his fellow delegates, had discussed the sub- 
ject with Lord Durham at Quebec in 1838. Johnstone 
had submitted a scheme for union to the Nova Scotia 
Assembly in 1854. Charles Tupper, lecturing at St. 
John in 1860, had favored a union of the British North 
American Provinces, even going so far as to include the 

249 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Red River and Saskatchewan country. Tapper's 
opportunity for action came in 1864, when, as Premier 
of Nova Scotia, he put through the Assembly a resolu- 
tion favoring a conference at Charlottetown regarding 
a union of the Maritime Provinces, a policy he had also 
advocated in his St. John lecture. This was adopted 
a few weeks before George Brown's committee had 
reported at Quebec in favor of a federative system, 
either for Canada or all the colonies. It was followed in 
August by a visit to the Maritime Provinces by a party 
of Canadian legislators, invited by Dr. Tupper on the 
suggestion of Sandford Fleming, engineer for the Inter- 
colonial Railway. 

Looking back at this trickling brook of national 
consciousness, it is interesting to recall the vision and 
sense of difficulties felt by so potent a Father of Confed- 
eration. 

"I do not rise," said Tupper, in moving for the 
Charlottetown Conference, "for the purpose of bring- 
ing before you the subject of the union of the Maritime 
Provinces, but rather to propose to you their reunion. 
. . . Whilst I believe that the union of the Mari- 
time Provinces and Canada, of all British America, 
under one government would be desirable if it were 
practicable — I believe that to be a question which far 
transcends in its difficulties the power of any human 
advocacy to accomplish — I am not insensible to the 
feeling that the time may not be far distant when events 
which are far more powerful than any human advocacy 
may place British America in a position to render a 
union into one compact whole, may not only render 

250 



SIR CHARLES TUPPER 

such a union practicable, but absolutely necessary, 
I need hardly tell you that contiguous to this there is a 
great Power, with whom the prevailing sentiment has 
long been — 

" 'No pent-up Utica contracts our powers, 
For the whole boundless continent is ours.' 

This has long been the fundamental principle which 
has animated the Republic of America." 

Dr. Tupper then raised a point which had an 
increasing influence in solidifying opinion for Confed- 
eration, and that was the danger from the disbanding 
armies in the United States as the Civil War closed. 

"I am satisfied," he concluded, "that looking to 
emigration, to the elevation of public credit, to the ele- 
vation of public sentiment which must arise from en- 
larging the sphere of action, the interests of these Pro- 
vinces require that they should be united under one 
government and legislature. It would tend to decrease 
the personal element in our political discussions, and to 
rest the claims of our public men more upon the advo- 
cacy of public questions than it is possible at the present 
moment whilst these colonies are so limited in extent." 

Canada, too, had caught the infection of national 
consciousness and sent her delegates to the conference 
at Charlottetown. The air was charged with a feeling 
of national change. The Civil War was near its end, the 
reciprocity treaty with the United States was unlikely 
to be renewed, and the British American Provinces 
looked toward each other with yearning and depen- 
dence. The Charlottetown Conference adjourned to 
Quebec to consider a larger union, pausing on the way 

251 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

for several public meetings. At Halifax, Tupper, pre- 
siding at a banquet to the visiting delegates, said he vsras 
"perhaps safe in saying that no more momentous gather- 
ing of public men has ever taken place in these Pro- 
vinces." 

The same sense of great impending events marked 
the utterances at Quebec. "From the time," said Dr. 
Tupper, replying to a toast to the Nova Scotia delegates, 
"when the immortal Wolfe decided on the Plains of 
Abraham the destiny of British America, to the present, 
no event has exceeded in importance or magnitude the 
one which is now taking place in this ancient and 
famous city." 

Going on, he discussed the necessity for Canada 
to have all year round access to the sea. "Why is it," he 
asked, "that the Intercolonial Railway is not a fact? It 
is because, being divided, that which is the common 
interest of these colonies has been neglected ; and when 
it is understood that the construction of the work is 
going to give Canada that which is so essential to her, 
its importance will be understood, not only in connec- 
tion with your political greatness, but also in connection 
with your commercial interests, as affording increased 
means of communication with the Lower Provinces. 
For the inexhaustible resources of the great West will 
flow down the St. Lawrence to Quebec, and from there 
to the magnificent harbors of Halifax and St. John, 
open at all seasons of the year." 

These were brave prophetic words, but it was not 
until 1876 that the Intercolonial was opened. It has 
since borne avalanches of criticism for its burden of 

252 



SIR CHARLES TUPPER 

political place-hunters, its easy-going management, and 
its deficits, but it cemented national sentiment, and in 
the great war opening in 1914 its usefulness as the only 
winter outlet for overseas troops abundantly justified 
its construction as a national enterprise. 

It was an easy matter to agree to the union scheme 
at Quebec, but the testing of Tupper and his colleagues 
came on their return to Nova Scotia. No torch-light 
processions awaited them; only sullen politicians and 
people, who were soon to be inflamed to the verge of 
rebellion by Howe, Annand and others. It was a long, 
stubborn battle, and its complete success for union was 
a matter of years. Tupper was cunning enough to 
devote his energies in the Legislature to other topics, 
and on union, like Bre'r Fox, he "lay low." Not until 
1866 was there opportunity to press for a vote. Then, 
on the defection of William Miller from the antis, he 
made bold to move for a conference with the Imperial 
authorities on a scheme more favorable to Nova Scotia 
than that framed at Quebec. New Brunswick, which 
had been faltering, came over to the union cause. 
Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland had defin- 
itely withdrawn, but Canada joined the two Maritime 
Provinces in the Conference in London, when the Con- 
federation Act was drafted. Tupper was one of the 
delegates, but he returned to find opposition to union 
unabated among the people. 

The campaign in the summer of 1867 was marked 
on June 4 by a historic joint debate at Truro between 
Howe and Tupper. Their utterances were recorded in 
shorthand by arrangement, and the record of this battle 

253 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

of giants recalls the great Lincoln-Douglas debate across 
the border a few years earlier. Howe and Tupper 
spoke at length, and crystalized the arguments on both 
sides. Howe, speaking first, engaged in good-natured 
banter, and though he may have pleased his hearers, his 
words were not strong, as a set of arguments for his side. 
He was on his defence for his own advocacy of union, 
but with a light hand he brushed this aside : 

"A man might discuss the question whether he 
would marry a girl or not, but that would not subject 
him to an action for breach of promise if he had never 
actually promised to marry her." 

Tupper was more serious and more logical. He 
met his opponent largely by quoting Howe's earlier 
declarations. He illuminated his rival's opposition to 
Confederation when he said: 

"Mr. Howe is possessed of an eloquence second to 
no man, but it is his misfortune that he can follow 
nobody, however wise or judicious a measure may be. 
He cannot give his assistance to any great question 
unless he is at the head promoting it. Day after day 
he had pledged himself not only to the principles but to 
the details of union; but when he saw it was to be 
accomplished by his opponents, he is found in the fore- 
most ranks of its opponents." 

Confederation Day came, even in Nova Scotia, and 
there, despite the opposition of the majority of the 
people, such a motto as this appeared in a window of 
St. Mary's Globe House: "Yesterday a provincial 
town; to-day a continental city." Sir John A. Mac- 
donald had announced his Cabinet, after a most trying 

254 



SIR CHARLES TUPPER 

experience in reconciling all Provinces and races, and 
almost giving up and advising that George Brown be 
called on. Dr. Tupper was not in the Cabinet, and he 
made his own explanation that day in Halifax: 

"In order to form a strong union Government, 
combining the Reformers and Conservatives of Ontario, 
the Catholics and Protestants of Quebec, and the Liber- 
als and Conservatives of Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 
wick, my friend, Mr. McGee, and I requested that the 
Hon. Edward Kenny, the President of the Legislative 
Council, should be substituted in our stead, and had the 
pleasure of seeing that arrangement effected." 

There was no room for doubt as to Nova Scotia 
sentiment when the Dominion elections in September, 
1867, resulted in the return of only one union candi- 
date in the Province. This was Tupper himself, who 
defeated William Annand, Howe's chief lieutenant. 
The battle was renewed at Ottawa early in 1868 when 
Howe and Tupper presented their case to the House 
of Commons. Suddenly Howe joined Annand and 
other Nova Scotians in a mission to London to press 
for the repeal of union. Tupper followed, resigning 
the Chairmanship of the Intercolonial Board in order 
to be free from obligation to Ottawa, and faced Howe in 
London. His argument that the Imperial authorities 
were for the union, that the agitation could not succeed, 
that Nova Scotia could not get along without Federal 
assistance, weakened Howe's resolution. Howe and 
Tupper returned together, and played shuffle-board, 
amiably, with Howe's associates looking on anxiously. 
Once in Canada, Tupper enlisted the hand of Sir John 

255 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Macdonald, master diplomat, and in a few weeks Howe 
was won over by the promise of better terms, and early 
in 1869 joined the Dominion Cabinet. Tupper piloted 
Howe, broken in health, through the Hants by-election. 
Three years later Howe and Tupper, working together 
at last, swept Nova Scotia completely, not an opponent 
of the Ottawa Government being returned. On the 
surface the union cause had its ultimate triumph. 

"It is not too much to say," says Sir Robert L. 
Borden of Tupper, "that if he had been a man of less 
invincible courage and determination, the project of 
Confederation might have been postponed for many 
years."* 

Nova Scotia's "little Napoleon" was not long in 
Federal politics before his influence was felt. His 
natural pugnacity and initiative carried him along in 
the House, while Sir John Macdonald soon learned to 
lean heavily upon him, though he was not yet in the 
Cabinet. In 1870 he launched the idea of the National 
Policy, which was later adopted by the Conservative 
party, and which with variations has remained in 
effect to this day. He asked the House if it was advan- 
tageous for Canada to long remain in its present 
humiliating attitude with regard to trade relations with 
the United States. 

"Should we allow the best interests of the country 
to be sacrificed," he said, "or uphold a bold national 
policy which would promote the best interests of all 
classes and fill our treasury? . . . Whoever read 

♦Introduction to Life and Letters of Sir Charles Tupper, P. VI. 

256 



SIR CHARLES TUPPER 

the discussions of Congress would see that all we had to 
do was to assume a manly attitude on that great question 
in order to obtain free trade with the United States. But 
suppose they, resented that retaliatory policy? The result 
would be hardly less satisfactory than a reciprocity 
treaty. It would increase the trade between the Pro- 
vinces, stimulate intercourse between the different sec- 
tions of our people, and promote the prosperity of the 
whole Dominion. Such a question should be fully con- 
sidered, for it aflected the most important interests of 
the country, and, properly dealt with, would diffuse 
wealth and prosperity throughout the Dominion." 

So impressed was Sir John Macdonald that he at 
once took Tupper into the Cabinet as President of the 
Council. 

But the National Policy was not to be adopted by 
the country for eight years. In 1873 the Macdonald 
Government fell, as a result of the Pacific Scandal 
exposure, and were out of office until 1878. Tupper, 
who was not compromised in any way by the charges, 
was a valiant defender of the Ministry, and when 
Lord Dufferin, then Governor-General, asked Sir John 
Macdonald to resign, Tupper, in a characteristic inter- 
view, secured a reversal of that request. His own ver- 
sion of this meeting is as follows : 

"I called upon Lord Dufiferin, who said: 'I sup- 
pose. Doctor, Sir John has told you what I have said 
to him,' and was answered in the affirmative. Lord 
Dufferin said: 'Well, what do you think about it?' I 
said, 'I think your Lordship has made the mistake of 
your life. To-day you enjoy the confidence of all parties 

257 

17 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

as the representative of the Queen. To-morrow you 
will be denounced as the head of a party by the Con- 
servative press all over Canada for having intervened 
during a discussion in Parliament and thrown your 
weight against your Government. Nor will you be able 
to point to any precedent for such action under British 
parliamentary practice.' 

"Lord Dufiferin said : What would you advise?' I 
replied : 'That you should at once cable the position to 
the Colonial Office and ask advice.' That was done. 
Lord Dufiferin sent for Sir John Macdonald at two 
o'clock that night, and withdrew his demand for the 
resignation of the Government."* 

The period which followed was one of low fortunes 
for the Conservative party. Sir John Macdonald, flung 
from the heights reached by his success in the Washing- 
ton treaty in 1872, was overwhelmed and eager to re- 
sign from the leadership. It was the buoyancy of Tup- 
per that revived him and induced him to remain head 
of the party. Both men removed to Toronto, Macdon- 
ald to take up law, living in the "Premier's house" in 
St. George Street, — afterwards successively the home of 
Oliver Mowat and A. S. Hardy, Premiers of Ontario — 
and Tupper to give attention to his neglected profession 
of medicine. Between whiles they "mended their poli- 
tical fences," and were soon in more cheerful mood. 

According to James Young, who was then in 
the House of Commons, a remarkable incident occurred 
in 1876. When the Liberal Budget was presented, the 
Conservatives expected a higher tariff, and were pre- 

*Life and Letters of Right Hon. Sir Charles Tupper, Vol. I, P. 226. 
258 



SIR CHARLES TUPPER 

pared in their criticism to take the opposite policy. Mr. 
Mackenzie's version, as quoted by Mr. Young, that 
night, after the Premier had been over chaffing Tup- 
per, was as follows : 

" 'I went over to banter him a little on his speech, 
which I jokingly alleged was a capital one considering 
that he had been loaded up on the other side. He 
regarded this as a good joke and frankly admitted to me 
that he had entered the House under the belief that the 
Government intended to raise the tarifif, and fully pre- 
pared to take up the opposite line of attack!' "* 

Tupper was equal to the emergency, and in the 
remaining years of Opposition was a merciless critic of 
Sir Richard Cartwright, then Finance Minister. The 
Conservatives gradually gained ground, through the 
widespread financial depression, the poor generalship 
of the Government, and the hope the high tariff aroused 
among the people. Sir John Macdonald was not long 
in power before the Canadian Pacific Railway project 
took a new and definite form. Sir Charles Tupper 
(who had been knighted in 1879), as Minister of Rail- 
ways, recommended a definite plan in June, 1880, fol- 
lowing which Macdonald, J. H. Pope and himself 
visited England and arranged with a syndicate for the 
construction of the transcontinental line on payment of 
$25,000,000 and 25,000,000 acres of land. In present- 
ing the agreement to the House for ratification late that 
year, Tupper said: 

*Public Men and Public Life in Canada, by Hon. James Young 
Vol. II, P. 240. 



259 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

"We should be traitors to ourselves and to our 
children if we should hesitate to secure, on terms such 
as we have the pleasure of submitting to Parliament, 
the construction of this work, which is going to develop 
all the enormous resources of the Northwest, and to 
pour into that country a tide of population which will 
be a tower of strength to every part of Canada, a tide 
of industrious and intelligent men who will not only 
produce national as well as individual wealth in that 
section of the Dominion, but will create such a demand 
for the supplies which must come from the older Pro- 
vinces as will give new life and vitality to every industry 
in which those Provinces are engaged." 

It fell now to the Liberals to play the role of Faint- 
heart. Edward Blake said the project was "not only 
fraught with great danger but certain to prove dis- 
astrous to the future of this country," while Sir Richard 
Cartwright considered the bill "simply as a monument 
of folly." Meetings were held in the country, Tupper 
following Blake from place to place a night later, but 
the bill passed, and the railway was completed by 188S, 
but not without mountainous financial difficulties^ 
which at times threatened disaster. 

Sir Charles Tupper's later public services were as 
Canadian High Commissioner in England, where he 
served almost continuously from 1884 to 1896. His 
aggressive and energetic temperament found play in 
uncounted avenues of usefulness. He returned to Can- 
ada in 1891, while still High Commissioner, to speak 
against the Liberal policy of reciprocity with the: 

260 



SIR CHARLES TUPPER 

United States, and for his partisanship was severely- 
criticized by his opponents. He was not chosen to suc- 
ceed Sir John Macdonald in 1891, and he has declared 
that he would not take the position. Writing to his son, 
C. H. Tupper, from Vienna, on June 4, 1891, on hear- 
ing Sir John was dying, he said : 

"You know I told you long ago, and repeated to 
you when last in Ottawa, that nothing could induce me 
to accept the position in case the Premiership became 
vacant. I told you that Sir John looked up wearily 
from his papers, and said to me: 'I wish to God you 
were in my place,' and that I answered : 'Thank God I 
am not.' He afterwards, well knowing my determina- 
tion, said he thought Thompson, as matters now stood, 
was the only available man."* 

When Tupper responded to the call of the Pre- 
miership in 1896, in his party's extremity, he was an old 
but still a courageous man. He placed his party under 
one more debt for his unhesitating service. Even in 
1900, in his last campaign, at the age of 79, he dashed 
from meeting to meeting with the constancy of a begin- 
ner. Defeat doubtless came to him as a relief, for on 
election night he bade his circle of friends in Halifax 
to be of good cheer: "Do not let a trifling matter like 
this interfere with the pleasures of a social evening." 
The last entry in his journal for that day said signifi- 
cantly : "I went to bed and slept soundly." 

Sir Charles lived until October 30, 1915. The sun- 
set of his life in England was brightened by the tributes 
and allegiance of friends in both parties. He had fought 

*Life and Letters of Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Tupper, Vol. II, P. 154. 

261 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

valiantly in the days of Canada's builders. His loyalty 
to his country was only equalled by his loyalty to his 
party. His last years were varied by occasional visits 
to Canada. In 1912 he laid at rest, in Nova Scotia, Lady 
Tupper, formerly Florence Morse of Amherst, his. 
happy helpmeet during sixty-six years of struggle. The 
world had entered the crucible of a vast war, and the 
Dominion saw ahead a new era for which the Confed- 
eration period was but the foundation, when a battle- 
ship bore his remains to his native land. 



262 



JOSEPH HOWE 




JOSEPH HOWE 



JOSEPH HOWE 

(1804-1873) 

JOSEPH HOWE is not to be measured by his fail- 
ures, but by his triumphs. His powerful constructive 
mind dominated his Province for thirty years, but mis- 
judgment and jealousy, the faults of a temperament, 
brought all but disaster. A man -who had peaceably 
accomplished responsible government in Nova Scotia, 
had conceived a great railw^ay policy to unite British 
America, and had drav^n his people to him as about an 
idol, was singularly unequal to the rebirth of a nation. 
Whatever Howe's faults of emotion or judgment, as 
revealed by his opposition to Confederation, he stands 
as the greatest Nova Scotian, the incarnation of his 
people. He grew up among them, he lived in their 
homes, he expressed their thoughts, he fought their 
enemies. He had an easy manner, and he was "Joe" to 
the entire Province. His magnetism won friendships, 
his eloquence thrilled until often he made the flesh 
creep, while his audience lost themselves in ecstasy and 
admiration. Wherever he sat in any company he was 
the centre of interest. Men grouped around him listen- 
ing for his wisdom, laughing at his jokes, and ignoring 
others of less charm and magnetism. 

Howe's record of creative work for his Province is 
imposing. As early as 1835, he advocated a railway 
from Halifax to Windsor. Three years later he visited 
England, and with representatives of other colonies 

265 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

secured a steam mail service to Halifax. For ten years 
he fought the Tory magistrates until responsible govern- 
ment was granted. In 1850 he advocated government 
construction of railways. At various times he spoke of 
the union of the British American colonies as probable 
and desirable, yet when the moment for Confederation 
arrived he forsook his old ideas and was prepared to 
resist it by force. 

That Howe should have been an opponent of Con- 
federation was as illogical as it was unfortunate. It is 
the truth to say he had passed his zenith and that his 
great work was done. He never stood higher than when 
he smashed the Family Compact. Thereafter he sought 
work which was not readily to be found. He implored 
the British Government for a post in a wider field. 
After years of waiting, he was finally serving as an Im- 
perial Fisheries Inspector when the federation move- 
ment crystallized in 1864. He was invited to the Char- 
lottetown Conference, but declined when the British 
Admiral refused permission. On such slender threads 
does history depend! Howe had advocated federation 
in 1849, in a letter to George Moffat of Mon- 
treal; he had supported it in the Assembly in 1854; 
in 1861 had moved a resolution favoring it, and as late 
as August, 1864, had spoken for it during the visit to 
Halifax of Canadian delegates of good-will. Yet he 
returned from his fisheries inspection in troubled mind, 
and was soon to swallow his own policy and almost 
destroy a vast scheme of union. 

There is little doubt that if Howe had gone to 
Charlottetown and Quebec the history of the period 

266 



JOSEPH HOWE 

would have been materially different. His sensitive 
poetic mind rebelled at the success of the great plan 
without his aid. There was also personal feeling, as 
expressed in the remark: "I will not play second fiddle 

to that d Tupper." The doughty warrior from 

Cumberland had now trailed him for twelve years. In 
1852 Tupper, then a young country doctor, had ap- 
peared at a Howe meeting and asked to be heard. 

"Let us hear the little doctor by all means," was 
Howe's patronizing reply. "I would not be any more 
affected by anything he might say than by the mewing 
of yonder kitten." 

Such a boat soon brought its retribution, for 
Tupper was to become Howe's relentless antagonist. 
Howe's ultimate acceptance of union and his entry into 
the Dominion Cabinet were concessions which went far 
to quiet the repeal agitation, though resentment in Nova 
Scotia lasted for a generation. 

It is doubtful if the history of British America 
holds a parallel to the case of Howe and his relation 
to Nova Scotia. He was born on December 13, 1804, 
in a cottage by the Northwest Arm, near Halifax. His 
father, John Howe, had been a loyalist refugee from 
Massachusetts, after witnessing the disaster to the Bri- 
tish cause at Bunker Hill. The lad was born in the 
heart of beautiful nature, and during youth developed 
his body and gratified his poetic soul by rambles over 
the hills and by the seashore. Years afterwards a 
woman who had been one of "Joe's" schoolmates said 
of him : "Why, he was a regular dunce ; he had a big 

267 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

nose, a big mouth and a great big ugly head; and he 
used to chase me to death on my way home from 
school."* 

These school days, so riotous with mischief and fun, 
ended at 13, when Joe entered the office of the Halifax 
Gazette as errand boy. One day he was a witness in 
court, and the Judge, thinking to take a rise out of him, 
said: 

"So you are the devil?" 

"Yes, sir, in the office, but not in the courthouse," 
was the crushing reply. 

At this period Howe began the constant serious 
reading which went far to fit him for his future useful- 
ness. He also wrote poetry, a diversion which continued 
for many years. In 1827 Howe and a friend bought the 
Weekly Chronicle and changed it to The Acadian, with 
the former as editor. The next year he married Cather- 
ine Susan Ann Macnab, a woman of sweetness and 
charm, who did much to moderate his excesses. Early 
in 1828 he purchased The Nova Scotian for £1,050, 
becoming sole editor and proprieter. Howe was now 
established as a citizen, and for the next several years 
he studied at the best of the politician's colleges, the 
farmer's fireside. He tramped and rode over the Pro- 
vince, stopped at the farm houses, kissed the women, 
played with the children, and wrote his observations 
and impressions under the heading, "Eastern and West- 
ern Rambles." His relative and friend, William An- 
nand, writes of this period : 

*The Tribune of Nova Scotia, b}'^ William Lawson Grant, P. 12. 

268 



JOSEPH HOWE 

"I have often seen him during this time worn out 
with labor, drawing draughts of refreshment alternately 
from Bulwer's last novel or from Grotius on National 
Law. His constitution was vigorous, his zeal unflag- 
ging. It was no uncommon thing for him to be a month 
or two in the saddle; or after a rubber of racquets, in 
which he excelled, and of which he was very fond, to 
read and write for four or five consecutive days without 
going out of the house." 

Howe was now storing up the information which, 
touched by the magnetism and poetry of his own per- 
sonality, was later to thrill scores of audiences on both 
sides of the Atlantic. His voice was heard on every 
hand in speech, in lecture and in propaganda for great 
causes. As late as July, 1865, he accomplished a historic 
triumph when, swept from their feet by his eloquence, 
a great hostile gathering at the International Commer- 
cial Convention at Detroit declared for a renewal of 
the reciprocity treaty with British America. 

"I have never prayed for the gift of eloquence till 
now," Howe began his Detroit speech. "Although I 
have passed through a long public life, I never was 
called upon to discuss a question so important in the 
presence of a body of representative men so large. I 
see before me merchants who think in millions and 
whose daily transactions would sweep the harvest of a 
Greek island or of a Russian principality. I see before 
me the men who whiten the ocean and the great lakes 
with the sails of commerce — who own the railroads, 
canals and telegraphs, which spread life and civiliza- 
tion through this great country, making the waste plains 

269 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

fertile and the wilderness to blossom as the rose. 
. . . I may well feel awed in the presence of such 
an audience as this ; but the great question which brings 
us together is worthy of the audience and challenges 
their grave consideration. 

"What is that question? Sir, we are here to deter- 
mine how best we can be brought together in the bonds 
of peace, friendship and commercial prosperity, the 
three great branches of the British family. . . . 
For nearly two thousand years we were one family. 
Our fathers fought side by side at Hastings, and heard 
the curfew toll. They fought in the same ranks for the 
Sepulchre of our Saviour in the early and later wars. 
We can wear our white and red roses without a blush 
and glory in the principles these conflicts established." 

Howe proceeded in similar highly poetic and 
inspiring phrases, and when he told his ecstatic hearers 
that one of his own sons had fought in the army of the 
North, that no reward from reciprocity compensated 
the parents for their hours of anxiety, but he was 
rewarded by his son's certificates of faithfulness and 
bravery, the audience rose and gave "three cheers for 
the boy." 

Imperial relationships were equally inspiring to 
Howe, and his speeches in favor of closer relations with 
the motherland were among the earliest and most elo- 
quent in the cause which afterwards won converts 
wherever the flag floats. Speaking on the resolution in 
favor of federation moved by Premier J. W. Johnstone 
in the Assembly in 1854, Howe said: 

270 



JOSEPH HOWE 

"I am not sure that even out of this discussion may 
not arise a spirit of union and elevation of thought that 
may lead North America to cast aside her colonial 
habiliments, to put on national aspects, to assert national 
claims and prepare to assume national obligations. 
Come what may, I do not hesitate to express my hope 
that from this day she shall aspire to consolidation as an 
integral portion of the realm of England, or assert her 
claims to a national existence." 

By 1830 Howe was writing with authority on the 
work of the legislators. There was as yet no responsible 
government in Nova Scotia. Magistrates ruled the 
cities, holding their commissions from the Crown. 
Howe frequently attacked them, and on January 1, 
1835, he published an article so offensive that he was 
indicted for libel. So entrenched was the old regime 
that Howe was advised by his lawyers that he had no 
case. "I asked the lawyers to lend me their books," he 
said afterwards. "I gathered an armful, threw myself 
on a sofa, and read libel for a week." The trial was a 
celebrated one. Howe warmed up as he proceeded, and 
at the end of a speech of over six hours in his own 
defence he was acquitted. The magistrates thereupon 
resigned and a vital blow was struck at the old system. 

Howe's place was now in Parliament. He was 
elected in 1836 and continued to sit until 1863. The 
battle for responsible government was carried on in the 
House and in his newspaper, until success came in 1847 
with a victory for the Reformers, J. B. Uniacke becom- 
ing Premier and Howe Provincial Secretary. The 

271 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

battle was marked by banter as well as bitterness. Soci- 
ety drew its skirts aside as the hated Radical passed, 
while Howe in turn laid doggerel hands on the sacred 
dignity of the Governor, Lord Falkland, in this ironical 
verse : 

"The Lord of the Bedchamber sat in his shirt, 

And D — dy the pHant was there, 
And his feelings appeared to be very much hurt, 
And his brow overclouded with care." 

A great storm was raised in the House, to which 
Howe replied that it would have been very much worse 
if he had said the lord had no shirt. Falkland was sub- 
sequently recalled and sent to Bombay. During this 
memorable period the ablest exponent of the old theory 
was Thomas Chandler Haliburton, author of "Sam 
Slick," and one of Howe's personal friends. At this 
time Upper and Lower Canada were in rebellion to 
achieve the same end of responsible government, but 
Howe, who had an exceptional reverence for the old 
land, frequently declared his disapproval of attempts to 
"bully the British Government." 

Howe's conception of a future federated British 
America was one of the earliest, and remains one of the 
most inspiring and poetic. Speaking at Halifax, in 
1851, on his return from England, where he had secured 
the offer of an Imperial guarantee to build an inter- 
colonial railway, he said : 

"She virtually says to us by the offet: — There are 
seven millions of sovereigns at half the price that your 
neighbors pay in the markets of the world; construct 
your railways; people your waste lands; organize and 
improve the boundless territory beneath your feet; learn 

272 



JOSEPH HOWE 

to rely upon and to defend yourselves, and God speed 
you in the formation of national character and national 
institutions." 

The idea of a wide nation developed as Howe 
unfolded prophetically his dream to a then receptive 
audience : 

"Throwing aside the more bleak and inhospitable 
regions, we have a magnificent country between Canada 
and the Pacific, out of which five or six noble Provinces 
may be formed, larger than any we have, and presenting 
to the hand of industry and to the eye of speculation 
every variety of soil, climate and resource. With such 
a territory as this to overrun, organize and improve, 
think you that we shall stop even at the western bounds 
of Canada, or even at the shores of the Pacific? Vancou- 
ver's Island, with its vast coal measures, lies beyond. 
The beautiful islands of the Pacific and the growing 
commerce of the ocean are beyond. Populous China 
and the rich East are beyond ; and the sails of our chil- 
dren's children will reflect as familiarly the sunbeams 
of the South as they now brave the angry tempests of 
the North. The Maritime Provinces which I now 
address are but the Atlantic frontage of this boundless 
and prolific region — the wharves upon which its busi- 
ness will be transacted and beside which its rich argosies 
are to lie. . . 

"I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, 
yet I will venture to predict that in five years we shall 
make the journey to Quebec and Montreal and home 
through Portland and St. John, by rail; and I believe 
that many in this room will live to hear the whistle of 

273 

18 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

the steam-engine in the passes of the Rocky Mountains 
and to make the journey from Halifax to the Pacific in 
five or six days." 

In the full flush of his success abroad and his recep- 
tion at home, where the people were ready enough to 
serve as the frontage of a great nation, Howe set out in 
June, 1851, for Canada. In Toronto, with E. B. Chand- 
ler of New Brunswick, he made an agreement with Sir 
Francis Hincks for Canada's part in the Intercolonial 
Railway scheme. Then came disappointment. Lord 
Grey limited the guarantee to a railway connecting the 
three Provinces and excluding the Portland line. New 
Brunswick at once, and naturally, withdrew from the 
scheme, though the next year they offered to join if the 
line were diverted to the St. John Valley. The failure 
was a sad blow to Howe. He was depressed, his Pro- 
vince was cold, and he was never quite the same again. 
The Grand Trunk meantime got a start in England, and 
the Intercolonial was not completed for another quar- 
ter century. 

Bitterness as well as disappointment and jealousy 
was written in Howe's words against Confederation. 
The Charlottetown Conference in the summer of 1864 
was called at the instance of Premier CharleS Tupper 
and the Nova Scotia Assembly to discuss a Maritime 
Union. The Canadian delegates swayed, if they did 
not stampede, the East into the larger scheme, and 
adjourned to Quebec, to settle the details. Howe 
returned from Newfoundland to find the plans far 
advanced, — farther, in fact, than the people seemed to 
wish. 

274 



JOSEPH HOWE 

"What does Howe think of Confederation?" was 
in everyone's mind. Already there were suspicion and 
disquiet, but the opposition lacked leadership. By Jan- 
uary, 1865, Howe was in form, with a suggestion of his 
old raillery, in a series of letters in the Halifax Chron- 
icle called "The Botheration Scheme." The same 
month he set down his objections in a letter to Lord 
John Russell. He contended that the Maritime Pro- 
vinces would be swamped by the Canadians, that the 
scheme was cumbrous and would require a tarifif and 
ultimately protection, and that in England no important 
change is made in the machinery of government without 
an appeal to the country. 

The anti-unionists now became so aggressive that 
progress was held up. Tupper, in the Nova Scotia 
Assembly, awaited developments, and only made head- 
way after New Brunswick had ratified the plan in the 
spring of 1866. He then secured, after bitter debate, 
the adoption of a seemingly innocent resolution favor- 
ing consultation with the Imperial Government on the 
question. This was all that was needed. Canada and 
New Brunswick also sent delegates to the London Con- 
ference, which drafted the Confederation bill. In 
the meantime Howe, Annand, and later, Hugh Mc- 
Donald, campaigned in England for six months 
against union, on behalf of the League of the Mari- 
time Provinces. Howe's letters to William J. Stairs 
of Halifax, recently published by the Royal Soci- 
ety, show the resourcefulness and persistence of his 
efforts. He wrote copiously against the union scheme, 
in pamphlets and letters to public men, interviewed 

275 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

statesmen and editors in behalf of the losing cause, but 
finally had to admit defeat. In one of his pamphlets 
he proposed an Imperial federation for all colonies hav- 
ing responsible government. 

"We are now approaching a crisis," he wrote on 
January 19, 1867. "We are prepared for the worst, and 
if it comes, the consciousness that we have done our 
best to avoid it will always console us."* 

William Garvie of Halifax, who was attached to 
the party, gives a shock to our sense of the importance of 
the bill when he describes its passage through the 
British Parliament. " 'Moved that Clauses 11, 74, 75 
pass,' and they were passed sure enough," he writes, 
quoting the Chairman of Committee, in his expeditious 
method. Garvie also says: "The Grand Trunk influ- 
ence had a powerful effect on the Government, who, 
though weak, were glad enough to bargain about votes 
for a Reform bill on condition of a Confederation 
policy." 

Howe and the anti-unionists had not yet played 
their last card. Confederation became effective July 1, 
1867, thus wiping out the sovereign powers of the Nova 
Scotia Assembly, but the people had still to be heard 
from. On his return from England, Howe began a 
campaign that threatened to drive a section of the new 
Dominion into rebellion or annexation. 

"I believe from the bottom of my heart," he said 
at Halifax in June, "that this union will be disastrous. 
At present we have no control of our revenues, our 

*"Transactions of the Royal Society," March, 1917: Joseph Howe 
and the Anti-Confederation League, Edited by Lawrence J. Burpee. 

276 



JOSEPH HOWE 

trade and of our affairs. (A voice: "Let us hold it") 
Aye, hold it I would; and I have no hesitation in say- 
ing that if it were not for my respect for the British flag 
and my allegiance to my Sovereign — if the British 
forces were withdrawn from the country and this issue 
were left to be tried out between Canadians and our- 
selves, I would take every son I have and die on the 
frontier before I would submit to this outrage." 

The elections a few weeks later showed that the 
people of Nova Scotia were of a similar mind regard- 
ing the "outrage." Out of 19 seats, Howe and the anti- 
unionists carried 18, the only unionist to be returned 
being Tupper. On election night Howe was hailed 
once more as a popular idol and received in triumph in 
Halifax. At the station he entered a carriage drawn by 
six horses and proceeded through the streets to the 
Parade. 

"All our revenues are to be taken by the general 
government, and we get back 80 cents per head, the 
price of a sheepskin," was the Howe slogan, alluding 
to the federal subsidy to the Provinces, and he pressed 
this on the House of Commons at Ottawa in the first 
session after Confederation. There was a thrill when the 
great enemy of the union rose to address the new 
Dominion House. "He struck an imperious attitude 
and slowly swept his glance around the chamber and 
the galleries," says J. E. B. McCready, who witnessed 
the scene. "It seemed as if another Samson were mak- 
ing ready to grasp with mighty hands the pillars of our 
national fabric and overwhelm it in ruin."* 

^Canadian Magasine, July, 1906. 

277 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Howe declared his Province would read the 
Speech from the Throne in sorrow and humiliation. He 
drew a contrast between the Nova Scotia that had been 
— prosperous, free and glorious, her ships carrying the 
British flag from her native ports to every sea — and the 
Nova Scotia now betrayed, prostrate, bleeding, her 
principles gone, her treasury rifled, and her sons and 
daughters sold for 80 cents a head, the price of a sheep- 
skin. Tupper replied in his usual confident manner, 
and unhesitatingly pictured results of prosperity and 
happiness that would flow to Nova Scotia. 

Suddenly Howe was gone from Ottawa. Report 
said he had left for London, and it developed that he 
and William Annand had departed on their last chance, 
to ask the Imperial Government to repeal Confedera- 
tion. It naturally fell to Tupper to follow. Then 
occurred in London one of the most dramatic incidents 
of the Confederation battle. Howe was now past 60, a 
somewhat weakened and dispirited man. He was the 
symbol of a losing cause, a desolate figure, facing a vig- 
orous, determined man, with power and success on his 
side. Long afterwards, as he himself passed down the 
hill towards sunset. Sir Charles Tupper wrote the story 
of that momentous interview when he, following Howe 
to London, sought his old antagonist. 

"I can't say that I am glad to see you," said Howe, 
"but we have to make the best of it." 

"I will not insult you by suggesting that you should 
fail to undertake the mission that brought you here," 
said Tupper. "When you find out, however, that the 
Imperial Government and Parliament are overwhelm- 

278 



JOSEPH HOWE 

ingly against you, it is important for you to consider the 
next step." 

Howe replied : "I have eight hundred men in each 
county in Nova Scotia who will take an oath that they 
will never pay a cent of taxation to the Dominion. I 
defy the Government to enforce Confederation." 

"You have no power of taxation, Howe," Tupper 
replied, "and in a few years you will have every sensible 
man cursing you, as there will be no money for schools, 
roads or bridges. I will not ask that troops be sent to 
Nova Scotia, but I shall recommend that, if the people 
refuse to obey the law, the federal subsidy be with- 
held." 

"Howe," he continued, "you have a majority at 
your back, but if you enter the Cabinet and assist in 
carrying out the work of Confederation, you will find 
me as strong a supporter as I have been an opponent." 

"I saw at once that Howe was completely stag- 
gered," Tupper adds, "and two hours of free and frank 
discussion followed." That night he wrote Sir John 
Macdonald he thought Howe would enter the Cabinet.* 

Howe's version of the interview is not less inter- 
esting. 

"We were honored by a visit from Tupper imme- 
diately on his arrival in London," he says. "Of course 
he assumes that we will be beaten here, and is most 
anxious about what is to come after, and desirous that 
we shall then lay down our arms. He thinks the Can- 
adians will oflfer us any terms, and that he and I com- 

*Recollections of Sixty Years in Canada, by Sir Charles Tupper, 
(Cassell & Co.), P. 59. 

279 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

bined might rule the Dominion. Of course I gave him 
no satisfaction."* 

Though the greatest of the anti-unionists was 
weakening, the fire of repeal had gained much headway. 
Howe returned to Halifax in a troubled state of mind. 
Conferences were held with the other leaders, and he 
counselled against further resistance. In doing so he 
lost most of his friends, but he acted from the broadest 
motives. Sir John Macdonald and Sir George Carticr 
went to Halifax to confer with Howe, and a meeting 
was held with Sir John Rose, Finance Minister, with the 
result that better terms, including an increase of $80,000 
in annual subsidy for ten years, were offered to Nova 
Scotia. Howe accepted this, but more reluctantly the 
accompanying condition, that he enter the Federal 
Cabinet. On this he had no alternative, for Sir John 
represented that the better terms could not be carried 
without some assurance that the repeal agitation would 
cease. However, by this act, Howe cut adrift from his 
Nova Scotia allies, including Premier Annand, who 
never forgave him. 

Howe's sun was almost set. The by-election in 
Hants which followed on his entering the Cabinet broke 
his health, and was the severest struggle of his political 
career. Tupper backed him strongly, and the slogan of 
"Howe and Better Terms" won. At a meeting at Nine 
Mile River one night, Howe lay on the platform in 
physical agony while his opponent, nick-named "Roar- 
ing Billows," denounced him. Howe subsequently 

^Speeches and Public Letters of Joseph Howe, Edited bv J. A. 
Chisholm, P. 534. 

280 



JOSEPH HOWE 

served as President of the Council and Secretary of 
State, but did not add to his fame. He visited the Red 
River Settlement in 1869, in connection with the ac- 
quisition of Rupert's Land. His conduct on this occa- 
sion resulted in an ill-tempered controversy with Wil- 
liam McDougall, a Cabinet colleague. In the next 
election, he and Tupper swept the Province for Con- 
federation, and in 1873, after he had criticized the 
Pacific Railway policy at Ottawa, he was appointed, at 
the request of his old rival Tupper, to the post of 
Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. 

When Howe left Ottawa on April 19, a crowd of 
fellow-members saw him off and presented an address 
in which they spoke of the "unprecedented duration 
and great value of his public services." It was appar- 
ent that he would never return. 

The tribune of the people was at last in a haven of 
rest, but he lived only a few weeks to enjoy it. Weak- 
ened by hard campaigning, incessant toil and much 
worry, the human machine broke down and he collapsed 
in his son's arms, dying on June 1, 1873. 

In the silence of his death there was a revulsion 
from the antipathy of the years of battle. Through the 
dim, old city, out along the jagged coast line, in the 
back townships where Joe Howe's grey suit and smiling 
face were still a happy memory, there was the sorrow 
that comes when a great man who is also a personal 
friend passes from life. The world remembers Howe 
as a rugged radical, a pioneer Imperialist, a peerless 
orator, a creative statesman; his old friends in Nova 
Scotia remembered him as a loving man among men. 

281 



WILLIAM ANNAND 




WILLIAM ANNAN D 



WILLIAM ANNAND 

(1808-1887) 

WILLIAM ANNAND was the chief "last 
ditcher" of his day. Long after Joseph Howe 
had thrown his influence in Nova Scotia for Confed- 
eration — lessened though it was by his own vacillation 
— Annand maintained his insurgency. He remained 
the leader of the anti-unionists, who were still in con- 
trol of the local Assembly, until his removal in 1875 
to England, where he died in the late 'eighties. Almost 
alone of influential Nova Scotians, Annand resisted the 
force and the craft of Sir Charles Tupper, and was one 
of the thousands who ever contended that a great wrong 
had been done his Province by the manner in which it 
was forced into Confederation. So stirred was the Pro- 
vince that union and anti-union was the local election 
issue far into the 'seventies. At first the Nova Scotia 
members at Ottawa held aloof from the old parties, but 
gradually the Liberals, who had comprised the bulk of 
the anti-unionists, joined the forces of Alexander Mac- 
kenzie. As late as the Provincial election of 1886, anti- 
union feeling was strong, but few are now living who 
took part in the fight against Confederation, and the 
bitterness of the majority of that day is little in evidence. 

One of the veterans of the lost cause is Senator 
L. G. Power of Halifax. 

"Was there any real grievance in Nova Scotia?" he 
was asked on the eve of the Confederation jubilee. 

285 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

"Nova Scotia before the union," he replied, "had 
low customs duties, the highest ad valorem, except 
liquor and tobacco, being ten per cent.; many items 
were only five per cent.; others were free. It was a 
cheap country to live in, and increased duties that fol- 
lowed were unpopular. We were a prosperous Pro- 
vince ; many people thought we would have been better 
ofif under the old conditions. The people got what they 
wished from their own Parliament, but Nova Scotia is 
now a small factor in the government of a big country, 
and the people do not get things as they would like. 
There is too much tendency to consider the big 
interests." 

Nova Scotia was slow to see the advantages of Con- 
federation. Her own nearest neighbors were the New 
England States, a few hours distant. Canada lay days 
away by water, and no railway existed until the middle 
'seventies. Canada had been the scene of rebellions and 
of the burning of parliament buildings; Nova Scotia 
was peaceful, and was taught by Howe to look on the 
Canadians as dangerous neighbors. When the logic of 
the occasion, coupled with better terms, had won Howe 
to the union cause, Annand, his relative and political 
associate for over thirty years, remained an opponent, 
and bitterly attacked his former friend. His position as 
editor of the Halifax Chronicle gave him influence 
which sustained the anti-unionist cause for years. 

Annand, though overshadowed by more pictures- 
que contemporaries, was in public life for almost forty 
years, and touched Nova Scotia's development at several 

286 



WILLIAM ANNAND 

vital points. He joined Howe in reforms, and his shy. 
practical personality supplemented the oratorical 
genius who often lived in the clouds and ever sought 
the lime-light. Annand was born in Halifax on April 
10, 1808, being thus Howe's junior by four years. His 
father was a well-to-do merchant, and both parents 
came from Banffshire, Scotland. Their son inherited 
the prudence and the steadfastness of the Lowland 
Scots. William was carefully educated in Halifax and 
in Scotland, and for a time lived on a stock farm at 
Upper Musquodoboit, near Halifax. So esteemed was 
the young farmer that at twenty-eight he was elected to 
the Assembly for Halifax County, Howe being his fel- 
low member. Annand in his election address laid down 
a progressive platform, including a demand for en- 
couragement to agriculture, fisheries and domestic 
manufactures. Hand in hand, Howe and Annand took 
up the battle for responsible government, the latter 
being a shrewd counsellor and a wholesome restraining 
influence on his more impulsive associate. Annand took 
part in the movement in 1843 to secularize education in 
Nova Scotia, and twenty years later supported Tupper 
and his Conservative Government in their steps for com- 
pulsory education. Annand purchased The Nova 
Scotian in 1843 and early in 1844 founded the Hali- 
fax Chronicle, with which he was more or less identi- 
fied until his death. Until 1846 he spent two happy 
years in editorial association with Howe, as they pro- 
moted the reforms for which they stood. Annand was 
not as brilliant a writer as Howe, but his articles had a 
clear, logical style and a certain manly dignity. He sat 

287 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

in the Assembly almost continuously until 1875, holding 
office as Financial Secretary from 1860 to 1863, and 
afterwards being a strong critic of the Tupper Govern- 
ment until he became Premier in 1867. 

The fight over Confederation brought Annand to 
the front speedily. When Adams G. Archibald* gave 
up the Liberal leadership and joined the unionists, 
Annand naturally assumed a prominent place in his 
party. Later, when Howe forsook the cause, Annand 
became Liberal leader. 

Before 1864, the year of the Quebec Conference, 
had closed, Annand had addressed a meeting in favor 
of Maritime Union and demanded that the Quebec 
scheme be submitted to the people. Presently he threw 
his full strength into the opposition cause, joining A. G. 
Jones, a prominent Conservative, and William J. Stairs, 
a Liberal. He deposed the editor of The Chronicle, 
Jonathan McCully,t who had been favorable to union, 
and early in 1865 admitted to his columns Howe's 
famous attacks on Confederation entitled, "The Bother- 
ation Scheme." The battle was then on in earnest. 
Howe on the rostrum and Annand with his pen 
strengthened each other. Together they denounced and 
delayed the scheme in the Assembly and crossed to Eng- 

*Sir Adams G. Archibald (1814-92) who belonged to a noted 
Nova Scotia family, was in public life for over thirty years. He entered 
the Nova Scotia Assembly in 1851, was Attorney-General 1860-63, and 
Lieutenant-Governor 1873-83. He was an early advocate of Confedera- 
tion and joined Tupper in the movement. He was Secretary of State for 
Canada 1867-70, and for the next two years Lieutenant-Governor of 
Manitoba. 

t Jonathan McCully (1809-77) was Liberal leader in the Legisla- 
tive Council in 1864 and supported Tupper's movement for union. He was 
a delegate to the Confederation Conferences, and in 1867 was appointed 
to the Senate. 

288 



WILLIAM ANNAND 

land in 1866 to present the antis' case when the bill was 
being drafted in London. Together they went to Eng- 
land again in 1868 to demand repeal. On this visit Tap- 
per impressed Howe with the futility of the fight; he 
returned a waverer, and presently gave up the battle. 
When Howe showed him Sir John Macdonald's letter, 
offering better terms, Annand, who was then Premier 
of Nova Scotia, said : "Yes, we will take this letter and 
deal with it." Howe read in this a move for further 
opposition to union and withdrew the letter. Annand 
proposed another delegation to England, but Howe 
disagreed. The quarrel which ensued broke a politi- 
cal friendship and association which had lasted for 
thirty-three years. 

It would be easy to say now that Annand and his 
fellow anti-unionists were without vision, but it is 
unfair to ignore the arguments they presented, which 
then made a deep impression in the Province. Among 
the State papers of the period are the despatch of the 
Colonial Secretary, the Duke of Buckingham, concern- 
ing Nova Scotia's protest, and the Nova Scotia Govern- 
ment's reply. In February, 1868, the Legislature of 
Nova Scotia, then in control of Annand and the anti- 
unionists, ordered Howe to proceed to England at once 
to present a petition to the Imperial Parliament "pray- 
ing for the release of Nova Scotia from the union." 

The Colonial Secretary, replying to this petition, 
said: 

"I trust that the Assembly and people of Nova 
Scotia will not be surprised that the Queen's Govern- 
ment feel that they would not be warranted in advising 

289 

19 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

the reversal of a great measure of State, attended by so 
many extensive consequences already in operation, and 
adopted w^ith the previous sanction of every one of the 
Legislatures concerned, and with the subsequent ap- 
proval of the Legislatures of Nova Scotia and New 
Brunswick." 

To this the Annand Government made a tart reply : 
"The Executive Council have read the despatch 
of His Grace the Duke of Buckingham, in reply to 
the address of the representatives of the people, for a 
repeal of the Act of Union, with mingled feelings of 
surprise and regret. . . . It is astonishing that the 
Colonial Minister should take the liberty of contradict- 
ing and of asserting that Confederation first originated 
with the Legislature of Nova Scotia. This assertion is 
unsustained by the slightest foundation of fact. We are, 
therefore, in no manner desirous of changing our politi- 
cal constitution, but will not willingly allow ourselves 
to be brought into subjection to Canada or any other 
country. We will have no confederation or union with 
other colonies, except upon terms of exact equality, and 
there is no change in our political relations that we 
should not prefer to the detestable confederation that 
has been attempted to be forced upon us. We shall 
proceed with the legislation and other business of the 
Province, protesting against the confederation boldly, 
and distinctly asserting our full purpose and resolution 
to avail ourselves of every opportunity to extricate our- 
selves from the trammels of Canada, and if we fail, after 
exhausting all constitutional means at our command, we 
will leave our future destiny in the hands of Him who 
290 



WILLIAM ANNAND 

will judge the people righteously and govern the 
nations upon earth." 

Annand's controversial ability was shown in his 
arguments against union in 1866 and 1867, before 
Howe's defection. Writing to the Earl of Carnarvon 
in 1866, in defence of Howe and in reply to Tupper, he 
contended the people should be consulted before the 
constitution was changed. "While nobody," he said, 
"denied the power of the Imperial Parliament to sweep 
away the constitution of a colony, should the preserva- 
tion of the national life or the great interests of the 
Empire demand the sacrifice, yet in such a case flagrant 
abuses, corruption or insubordination must be shown, 
or the existence of a high State necessity, in presence of 
which the ordinary safeguards as existing institutions 
should give way" I Annand contended that no such 
abuses or State necessity existed to warrant what he 
termed "an act of confiscation and coercion of the most 
arbitrary kind." His prophecy that, were an election 
to take place, not three unionists would be returned, was 
borne out, for in the contest of September, 1867, only 
one unionist, Dr. Tupper, was returned to Ottawa from 
the nineteen counties. At the same time the unionists 
carried only two out of thirty-eight seats in the Assem- 
bly. 

In a debate in the Assembly in March, 1867, 
Annand developed the argument against the coercion 
of Nova Scotia. He demanded of Dr. Tupper where 
in the history of the world any such attempt had been 
made to deprive a people of their government and 
institutions against their will, without even a chance 

291 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

to review the measure. "Such a policy might be tried 
with impunity in Nova Scotia with its 350,000 inhabi- 
tants, but could it safely be tried in Canada with 2,500,- 
000? Could it be tried in England? We are too weak 
to rebel if we had the disposition, but it is a fair prin- 
ciple that what could not be done constitutionally in 
England should not be done here." 

"If, however," said Annand, replying to Dr. Tup- 
per, "the people are forced into the union, I do not 
hesitate to say that I will dedicate the remaining years 
of my life, be they many or few, to endeavor to repeal 
a union so hateful and obnoxious. I am an Englishman 
in spirit, if not by birth ; I love the institutions of Eng- 
land, and if I am deprived of them and my liberties as 
a British subject, then all I can say is, that by every con- 
stitutional means I will endeavor to destroy a union 
brought about by corrupt and arbitrary means."* 

In 1868 Howe, Annand and their colleagues made 
their last constitutional effort in asking the British Par- 
liament to release Nova Scotia from the union. John 
Bright brought it before the House with a motion that 
a commission be appointed to investigate the causes of 
discontent in Nova Scotia. This was defeated by 183 
to 87, and with this vote the repeal movement failed. 
The delegates, who yet included Howe, issued a parting 
statement couched in almost epic language, in which 
they said: 

"But what of the future? The question is natural, 

*Three Premiers of Nova Scotia, by Edward Manning Saunders, 
P. 414. 

292 



WILLIAM ANNAND 

but we have no answer to give. With the publication 
of this paper our responsibilities end. We have pro- 
posed our remedy — it has been rejected. His Grace the 
Colonial Secretary and Lord Monck have assumed the 
task of making things pleasant and harmonious. They 
will have begun to try their experiments before the 
Legislature of Nova Scotia meets in August. Having 
discharged our duty to the Empire, we go home to share 
the perils of our native land, in whose service we con- 
sider it an honor to labor, whose fortunes in this dark- 
est hour of her history it would be cowardice to desert." 

The back of the resistance to union was broken. 
Howe capitulated to the arguments of Tupper and the 
appeal of "better terms." Annand might have acted 
with him had Howe taken him into his confidence dur- 
ing the memorable return journey with Tupper on the 
City of Cork. As it was, old friends parted. Annand 
refused to meet the Ottawa Ministers at dinner when 
they came to Halifax to negotiate with Howe, and after- 
wards took the stump against Howe in Hants. 
Annand's feeling against Howe, which was heartily 
reciprocated in the quarrel, was reflected in The Chron- 
icle, which on February 2, 1869, said: 

"Howe came from England determined to share 
the perils of his native land in the darkest hour of her 
history, and he has done so with a vengeance. He has 
assumed the perils of the Presidency of the Dominion 
Privy Council, and the temptations of a yearly salary of 
$5,000, and dared a trip to snowed-up Ottawa. . . . 
That Mr. Howe has shamefully abandoned the party 
which he joined in the very heyday of its success is 

293 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

plain. That he actually sold, after long plotting, the 
country to which he owed all that he ever was, or ever 
had, we are sorry to say we are convinced. Let him go. 
One man never built up a country. One man cannot 
ruin it if the people make a determined stand for their 
rights." 

The insurgents and the irreconcilables had their 
day, but the leaven was working. Howe and Tupper 
together carried the voters by storm in the next election. 
Even Annand, shortly after Howe joined the Cabinet, 
admitted through The Chronicle that it was "the policy 
of the people of Nova Scotia to make the best of union 
while it lasted." 

Annand's last years were spent in England, far 
from the scene of strife. For a time he was Agent-Gen- 
eral of the Dominion Government, and afterwards, 
until his death on October 12, 1887, Agent for Nova 
Scotia. When he passed away few of his contem- 
poraries remained, but Nova Scotia history must count 
him an influential and honorable figure during critical 
times. He was a good executive, a capable leader, and 
a speaker of ready expression and forcible style. 



294 



PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND 

DAVID LAIRD 




DAVID LAIRD 



DAVID LAIRD 

(1832-1914) 

♦<T ONG courted; won at last." 

J-Jxhese words adorning an arch of welcome in 
Charlottetown during the visit of Lord Dufferin, in 
July, 1873, formed a naive admission from the coy 
maiden of the Gulf. With Prince Edward Island it 
was not so much love at first sight as, What are the terms 
of the marriage settlement? Nine years were occupied 
by the flirtation with the unknown stranger, Confed- 
eration, and only in the hour of her need did the Island 
consent to the nuptials. 

It is true that David Laird said in his first speech 
in the House of Commons that the Island wanted to 
see how Confederation was to prosper. It is also true 
that the spirit of the Islanders, following 1864, was one 
of suspicion of Upper and Lower Canada, carried even 
beyond that of the other Maritime Provinces. Though 
they had taken part in the Charlottetown and Quebec 
conferences, they soon withdrew from the scheme, and 
returned only when a railway burden threatened the 
Island's solvency. 

David Laird, as one of the Island's most distin- 
guished sons, reflected the prevailing sentiment of his 
day regarding union. He was not at either Conference, 
and the delegates were not long home from Quebec 
before he was in the fight against them. In 1873 he 
took the other view, though reluctantly, and lived to 

297 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

render signal service to the new Dominion. Laird 
was one of the noble company of able, intellectual men 
whom the Maritime Provinces have sent to Ottawa, 
men whose calibre has ever given the seaboard sections 
a high influence in Dominion councils and overcome 
the disadvantages of slow development. 

Scottish ancestry and inherited sterling qualities 
gave David Laird a character that made for solidity and 
service in a pioneer commonwealth. His father, Alex- 
ander Laird, who came from Renfrewshire to a farm in 
Prince Edward Island in 1819, was a man of high 
character and influence. He satin the Island Assembly 
for 16 years, and for four years was a member of the 
Executive Council. David Laird was one of a family 
of eight, and was born at New Glasgow, P.E.I., on 
March 12, 1833. His higher education at the Pres- 
byterian Theological Seminary at Truro, N.S., was 
aimed to fit him for the Church, but he entered 
journalism instead as founder and editor of The Patriot 
at Charlottetown. A man of Laird's moral and intel- 
lectual strength was soon an influential citizen. He 
served in the Charlottetown city council, but did not 
enter the Assembly until 1871. He was elected to 
oppose the railway, then promoted by J. C. Pope* and 
his government, which Mr. Laird held was beyond the 
Island's resources. 

♦James Colledge Pope (1826-85) was instrumental in keeping 
Prince Edward Island out of Confederation in 1866, and in bringing it in 
in 1873. As Premier he moved the negative resolution in the former 
year, and becoming again Premier in 1873 he accepted the better terms 
offer under the Island's financial needs consequent on its railway pro- 
gram. Pope entered the Island Assembly in 1858, and was Premier three 
times. Being elected to the House of Commons in 1876 he became Min- 
ister of Marine and Fisheries, serving until his retirement in 1882. 

298 



DAVID LAIRD 

Progress on the Island had been retarded by the 
feudal system under which the land was parcelled out 
in 20,000-acre blocks after the British occupation in 
1763. Absentee landlords and disheartened tenants 
made a fruitful subject for politicians, but all efforts 
at relief had failed. The Islanders, therefore, turned 
with curiosity and not without hope to the invitation to 
join in the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences. 
Judge their disappointment when the Quebec scheme 
made no provision for a settlement of the land question 
and was interpreted as meaning for them actual loss. 

The Island's delegates had joined in the ecstatic 
prophecies at the conferences, but they were far ahead 
of their people. "It may yet be said," declared T. H. 
Haviland* at Charlottetown, "that here in little Prince 
Edward Island was that union formed which has pro- 
duced one of the greatest nations on the face of God's 
earth." Edward Whelan,t an alert, eloquent Irishman, 
who had learned printing with Joseph Howe in Hali- 
fax, was similarly happy. At Montreal, after the Que- 
bec Conference, he said the Island could support a 
population at least three times as great as it then con- 
tained, and he was satisfied the Province "could not fail 

*Thomas Heath Haviland (1822-95) was a member of the Island 
Assembly from 1846 to 1870 and on three occasions was Colonial Secre- 
tary for the Province. He was a staunch advocate of Confederation, 
attended the Quebec Conference, and aided in arranging the final terms 
of union in 1873. In 1873 he was called to the Senate and in 1879 became 
Lieutenant-Governor of Prince Edward Island. 

t Edward Whelan (1824-67) was a fervid Irishman who, had 
he lived, might have won fame in a wider sphere. He learned printing 
in the office of The Nova Scotian under Joseph Howe, and moving to 
Prince Edward Island in 1842 entered the battle for popular rights. He 
was elected to the Assembly, attended the Quebec Conference, and by his 
oratorical gifts furthered the union cause xmtil his own Province renounced 
it for the time; his own death followed soon. 

299 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

to become very prosperous and happy under the pro- 
posed union." 

David Laird was one of the first to disturb the 
dream of the Island delegates. Just turned thirty, his 
six feet four inches and his uncommonly loud voice 
commanded attention at once in the battle against the 
Quebec scheme. Early in 1865, The Islander news- 
paper, which had been favorable to union, went to the 
other side, and George Coles and Edward Palmer, two 
of the delegates to Quebec, gave way to pressure and 
spoke against federation. Public meetings were held, 
and the Islanders were told they would be marched 
away to the frontiers of Upper Canada to fight for the 
defence of the Canadians. 

Laird made an exhaustive speech against union at 
a meeting at Charlottetown in February. He objected 
to the terms of Confederation, and claimed each Pro- 
vince should have equal representation in the Legisla- 
tive Council. As to the Assembly, he protested against 
Montreal having one more representative than the 
Island, and with "the refuse and ignorant of its purlieus 
and lanes being thus placed on an equality with the 
moral, independent and intelligent yeomen of Prince 
Edward Island." He estimated that the Island would 
be $93,780 worse off financially each year under union. 

The debate went on for several weeks, T. H. Havi- 
land being a leading defender of the scheme he had 
helped to found. Opinion was crystallized at a large 
meeting in Charlottetown where the following resolu- 
tion was adopted : 

300 



DAVID LAIRD 

"That in the opinion of this meeting the terms of 
union contained in the report of the Quebec Confer- 
ence — especially those laid down in the clause relating 
to representation and finance — are not such as would be 
either liberal or just to Prince Edward Island, and that 
it is highly expedient that said report be not adopted 
by our Legislature." 

Before the end of March the Assembly by 5 to 23 
had failed to approve the Quebec terms, and the idea 
was all but abandoned. A resolution adopted by the 
Assembly early in 1866 made the plan seem even more 
offensive. It said that, while union might benefit the 
other Provinces, they could not admit "it could ever be 
accomplished on terms that would prove advantageous 
to the interests and well-being of this Island, separated 
as it is and must ever remain from the neighboring Pro- 
vinces by an immovable barrier of ice for many months 
of the year." 

Other temptations from the uniting Provinces 
followed. The delegates in England framing the 
B.N.A. Act in 1866 made an informal offer to J. C. 
Pope, who was there on a visit, of $800,000 for loss in 
territorial revenue and for purchase of landlords' 
rights. Three years later Premier R. P. Haythorne 
rejected a further offer, on the ground that it was inade- 
quate. 

"No union" was still the cry in 1870, when the 
Islanders stubbornly opposed any change, while declar- 
ing their attachment to the British Crown. David 
Laird during the session of the Legislature set forth 
the Islanders' views typically. 

301 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

"It had been stated," he said, "that in our present 
isolated position we should never have any influence, 
but that united to Canada we should be a part of a great 
nation. He would ask what constituted greatness? A 
large population did not constitute greatness, or China 
would be the greatest empire in the world. Neither did 
large extent of territory, or Russia would be great. 
Neither did wealth make a country great unless there 
was freedom. The greatness that was to be desired was 
to have freedom of conscience and to have every man 
educated. We should not be improved in these respects 
by joining the Dominion, and as far as wealth was con- 
cerned, we could also compare favorably with them. 
We could gain nothing commercially by uniting with 
the Canadians, as they grew everything we did, and we 
would aid them in building railroads which would be 
a means of conveyance for their produce and enable 
them to supply the different markets more readily than 
we could." 

One year later the cause of the Island's change of 
heart loomed up in a project for a railway. This essen- 
tially modern instrument became a reality, though 
Arcadian simplicity still finds expression in L. M. 
Montgomery's novels of Island life and in the prohibi- 
tion until recently of the use of automobiles. The rail- 
way was to cost $25,000 per mile, but the prospect of 
a $3,000,000 debt made the bankers nervous, and within 
two years the Province appeared to face bankruptcy. 
David Laird had entered the Cabinet of R. P. Hay- 
thorne late in 1872, and, realizing the crisis, they ac- 
cepted an invitation to visit Ottawa. Haythorne and 

302 



DAVID LAIRD 

Laird "stole away in the night," as a critic said, by the 
ice-boat route to the mainland, and reached Ottawa on 
February 24, 1873. They had extended interviews with 
the Government, but their visit was barely noticed by 
the public. Terms were offered and they went home 
to submit them to the people. J. C. Pope outman- 
oeuvred them by promising to secure "better terms," 
and won the general election without endangering the 
principle of union, which the majority now desired. 
Pope and Haviland then visited Ottawa, secured some 
slight changes, and the union scheme was adopted un- 
animously in the Legislature, becoming effective on 
July 1. 

Pope had opposed union as had Laird, and the 
latter described the logic of events during the session 
of 1873. "The delegates went to Ottawa," he said, 
"not to sell their country or barter away its constitu- 
tion, but, in the embarrassed state of the colony brought 
about by the railway measure, to see what terms could 
be had." 

"In view of the present and prospective difficulties 
of the colony," he added, "they (the delegates) saw 
that increased taxation or confederation was unavoid- 
able. As a native of the country, if he saw any possible 
way by which they could hope to overcome these diffi- 
culties and remain as they were, he would feel glad, but 
as the railway debt would be largely increased in another 
year he saw no course open but the one they took." 

Under the agreement the Dominion Government 
took over the Island Railway, which was under con- 
tract, and gave $800,000 for the purchase of land from 

303 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

the proprietors and undertook various other expenses, 
as well as the subsidy of 80 cents per head as in the case 
of the other Provinces. 

Considering the state of Canadian politics at the 
time, it is little wonder that the addition of Prince 
Edward Island to the union made slight stir. The 
Dominion was seething in 1873 over the charges and 
revelations oi the Pacific Scandal, under which the 
Pacific Railway Syndicate gave large sums to the Con- 
servative party's campaign fund. The scandal had 
reached its climax in the autumn in a long debate in the 
House on the report of the commission of investigation. 
The six members from the Island had taken their seats 
for the first time, under the leadership of David Laird. 
Their attitude in Federal politics was yet unknown and 
was awaited with some anxiety. It was now that the 
sterling qualities of David Laird were seen. He stood 
in the House like an avenging angel. He began his 
speech on November 4 with some timidity, as he said 
the Island members had not been present when the 
charges were made. At the same time, he added, the 
members had now taken their seats, and they would 
neither be faithful to their constituents nor to the trust 
reposed in them if they shirked the vote upon this 
question. He reviewed the case in a fresh and compre- 
hensive manner, censured the conduct of the Ministers 
involved, declared the carrying of elections by the influ- 
ence of money was a subversion of the rights of the 
people, and said he was ready to vote according to his 
conscience. 

304 



DAVID LAIRD 

"Upon the decision that is given on this question," 
he said, "will depend the future of the country, its intel- 
lectual progress, its political morality and, more than 
all, the integrity of its statesmen." 

It was generally conceded that Mr. Laird's speech, 
along with that of Donald A. Smith (later Lord Strath- 
cona), had much to do with precipitating the Govern- 
ment's resignation the next day. Sir George W. Ross, 
who was then a tyro in the House of Commons wrote 
years afterwards that the Island leader's speech was 
anxiously awaited. 

"Mr. Laird," he said, "was regarded as a man of 
high character, and the Opposition could only hope that 
no consideration of personal or Provincial interest 
would sway his judgment. . . . Was ever a 
maiden speech so fraught with doom? With great 
calmness and in a moderate tone he declared his opposi- 
tion to the Government, and the Opposition benches 
rang with cheers."* 

Donald A. Smith's speech marked the revulsion of 
another strong mind, and the Government could do 
nothing but resign, without even a vote. Two days 
after Laird's telling speech, so swiftly and unexpect- 
edly did events move, Alexander Mackenzie was 
Premier of Canada and David Laird was his Minister 
of the Interior. 

A new outlook now confronted the Island leader. 
The man who had resisted union with the other Pro- 
vinces now became a keen instrument in the further 

♦Getting Into Parliament and After, by Sir Geo. W. Ross, P. 70. 

305 

20 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

expansion of the Dominion. It required men of his 
painstaking ability, humanity and integrity to lay the 
foundations for the great structure in the West. He 
served as Minister of the Interior until July 7, 1876, 
when he became the first Lieutenant-Governor of the 
Northwest Territories, and moved to the boundless and 
all but empty plain that he was later to see so potent 
a part of the Dominion. There was yet not a mile of 
railway, the inhabitants were mostly red men, and the 
wheat-growing possibilities were not even dreamed of. 
Seven years previously Louis Riel had mustered the 
half-breeds to resist the white man's coming, but 
stragglers were entering and the dawn of a new era was 
seen. 

No doubt Laird's appointment as Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor of the Northwest Territories grew out of a visit 
which he paid to Winnipeg and the western country 
in 1874. On this occasion he was one of the commis- 
sioners appointed by the Government to negotiate a 
cession of Indian territory from the aborigines. It may 
be interesting to note that at the first session of the 
Dominion Parliament the Speech from the Throne 
dealt with the advisability of extending the boundaries 
of the country to the Rocky Mountains, and on Decem- 
ber 4, 1867, the House went into committee to consider 
the proposed resolutions for a union of Rupert's Land 
and the Northwest Territories of Canada. Of these 
resolutions No. 7 provides "That the claims of the 
Indian tribes to compensation for lands required for 
purposes of settlement would be considered and settled 
in conformity with the equitable principles which have 

306 



DAVID LAIRD 

uniformly governed the Crown in its dealings with the 
aborigines." This was simply carrying out the pro- 
cedure laid down by the Proclamation of 1763. After 
Parliament took the necessary action, the Hudson's Bay 
interest in the Territories was purchased and the Gov- 
ernment began to make arrangements with the Indians 
for extinction of the Indian title. 

Before Mr. Laird's mission, three arrangements, 
which are known as treaties, were made, whereby the 
Indian lands in what is now a portion of Manitoba were 
ceded. The fourth treaty, which was negotiated by 
David Laird and Alexander Morris, covers about 
75,000 square miles of territory, including the most 
fertile wheat lands in the Province of Saskatche- 
wan. Mr. Laird reported that the information which 
he acquired at Qu'Appelle and Manitoba would aid 
him greatly in discharging the responsible duties of his 
Department. It did more than that; it paved a way 
for residence in the country and the acceptance of the 
highly onerous position of Lieutenant-Governor of the 
Northwest Territories. When he went to Battleford 
no arrangement had yet been made with the Indians 
for the cession of the territory as far west as the Rocky 
Mountains. In this situation his integrity and probity 
stood him in good stead. To the Indians Mr. Laird was 
the Big Chief. With their keen insight, they named 
him "The-man-whose-tongue-is-not-forked." From 
his primitive capital at Battleford he moved among 
his white and red subjects, whom he ruled with a ben- 
evolent despotism. At times the outskirts of the old 
Northwest capital bristled with the tents of visiting 

307 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

aborigines. He had an intimate acquaintance with the 
Indian leaders, such as Crowfoot, the head chief of 
the powerful Blackfoot nation, and Red Crow of the 
Blood tribes, as also with his more immediate neighbors, 
James Seenum, Mistowasis and Atahkahkoops, three 
Cree chiefs, whose lands were in the vicinity of Battle- 
ford, and on numerous occasions he smoked with them 
the pipe of peace. 

His most important negotiation with the Indians 
was the treaty known as Number 7, with the Blackfoot 
tribes of Southern Alberta. These Indians were the 
most warlike of the Territories, and as the projected 
railway was to pass through their country, the nego- 
tiations with them were most important. To make this 
treaty Governor Laird journeyed hundreds of miles 
over the prairie to Fort Macleod. The conference with 
the chiefs took place at the Blackfoot crossing of the 
Bow River, and its success was the more gratifying 
because over the boundary United States troops were 
then in conflict with Indians. 

"In a very few years," Laird told the chiefs, "the 
buffalo will probably be all destroyed, and for this rea- 
son the Queen wishes to help you to live in the future 
in some other way." 

The prophecy was fulfilled, for it was not long 
before the Government had to supply beef for the 
Indians, whose nomadic herds had been swept away 
forever by the greed and waste of the hunters. 

Treaty No. 8 followed in 1899, when Mr. Laird, 
then Indian Commissioner, journeyed more than 2,000 
miles over lakes, rivers and trails north of Edmonton. 

308 



DAVID LAIRD 

He negotiated with the Crees, Beavers and Chippew- 
yans for the possession of a territory 500 miles in 
length from the Athabasca River to the Great Slave 
Lake, to be held, in the picturesque language of the red 
man, "as long as the sun shines and w^ater runs." Cash 
grants each year to every Indian w^ere promised, as well 
as special reserves of land. They are now living on 
reserves and reasonably prosperous and contented. 

From his retirement from the Lieutenant-Gover- 
norship in 1881 until 1898 Mr. Laird returned to the 
editor's chair in Charlottetown. In the latter year he 
yielded again to the call of the West and returned as 
Indian Commissioner. He was located at Winnipeg 
for several years, removing to Ottawa in 1909, where 
his wide knowledge was sought by the Government in 
an advisory capacity. Here he was serving when death 
overtook him, after a week's illness, on January 12, 
1914. 

Among the builders of the Canadian federation 
David Laird stands out for integrity and sturdy inde- 
pendence. They used to call him "Dour Davie," and 
some said cynically that he was so upright as to be 
impracticable. He was the keeper of an alert Pres- 
byterian conscience, and the nation profited by the 
confidence his character inspired. His reluctance 
towards Confederation was typical of his environment, 
and has found echoes to this day in the pleas of Island 
members for a tunnel and other subventions from 
Ottawa. His Island home gave him a character which 
mere size or wealth in any country could not supply, 
and he used it faithfully as a pathfinder and placed the 
Dominion forever in his debt. 309 



ROUNDING OUT CONFEDERATION 



ROUNDING OUT CONFEDERATION 

HAPPILY the West joined its fortunes with the 
union during the foundation period, and the mem- 
bers of the Canadian family have thus grown up 
together. The early affiliations of the Red River Col- 
ony, which in its birth goes back to Lord Selkirk's 
romantic enterprise of 1812, were with the American 
west. More than one thousand miles of wilderness 
separated the settlement from populated Ontario, and 
in the 'sixties hundreds of Red River carts plowed the 
mud, that was afterwards to become the granary of an 
Empire, to keep open the communications between Fort 
Garry (afterwards Winnipeg) and St. Paul, Minnesota, 
When the Hudson's Bay Company surrendered its 
right to Rupert's Land and the Northwest Territory 
in 1 869, it bequeathed a discontented element of French 
Canadians to the new Government. Though the popu- 
lation of the Red River Settlement was not more than 
12,000, Louis Riel, reflecting the fear of the Catholics 
as to the sacrifice of their race and religion, as well as 
giving rein to his own ambition and vanity, led in the 
obstruction to the entrance of William McDougall, the 
new Governor. Donald A. Smith (afterwards Lord 
Strathcona) took part in the conciliation that followed, 
and was a member of the first Executive Council for 
the Northwest. An anxious winter was marked by the 
shooting of Thomas Scott, an Ontario Orangeman, after 
a mock court-martial, by Riel's men. The settlement 

313 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

then calmed down, delegates went to Ottawa to arrange 
terms, and the Manitoba Act, admitting the Province 
to Confederation, was passed on May 12, 1871. Adams 
G. Archibald of Nova Scotia, who had been a Father 
of Confederation and a member of the Dominion 
Cabinet, was appointed Governor, and entered upon a 
rule marked by conciliation. 

On the arrival in August of Col. Garnett Wolseley, 
with a detachment of troops, Riel and his leaders solved 
by flight a situation rendered delicate by the opposi- 
tion of the French element to immigration which 
threatened their preponderance. 

British Columbia quickly followed Manitoba's 
lead in entering the union, but the territories lying 
between, though forming part of the Dominion, were 
without Provincial autonomy until 1905. On the 
Pacific coast two colonies, British Columbia and Van- 
couver Island, were none too congenial neighbors. 
Here, too, the long sway of the Hudson's Bay Company 
was the only rule the few whites and Indians had 
known, the last of its great Governors being Sir James 
Douglas. Politically, this rule closed in 1859, and 
under Imperial pressure the two colonies united in 
1866. The gold rush of the early 'sixties had ended, 
and the crumbling of the road-houses on the trails 
symbolized depression and deficits. The colony was 
pitifully isolated. Locked behind its screen of moun- 
tains, San Francisco was its nearest mart, and the rest of 
the world was reached by Panama or Cape Horn. As 
the public debt passed the million dollar mark, the ob- 

314 



ROUNDING OUT CONFEDERATION 

vious thought was to join Canada. A Confederation 
League was formed at a meeting in Victoria in May, 
1868, and a convention at Yale in September showed 
that the mainland was almost a unit for union. The 
choice of Anthony Musgrave as the new Governor, an 
adroit suggestion from Sir John A. Macdonald, added 
the needed weight to the union cause. On his arrival 
early in 1870 the Legislature adopted resolutions 
framed by the Governor, and delegates were sent to Ot- 
tawa asking for Confederation. To reach an agreement 
when both sides were eager was easy, and under its 
terms the Dominion promised to complete a railway to 
the Pacific coast within ten years, besides assuming the 
debt of the colony, and granting the usual subsidies. On 
July 20, 1871, British Columbia entered Confederation, 
and Anthony Musgrave went back to England and was 
knighted for his services. 

Five years later Lord Dufferin visited the Province 
and found much unrest from the delay in constructing 
the Pacific Railway, which had been hindered by 
change of government and policy at Ottawa. "United 
without Union" and "Confederated without Confed- 
eration" were some of the outspoken sentiments express- 
ed on street arches, while one arch bearing the motto, 
"Carnarvon Terms or Separation," was so offensive that 
the Governor-General refused to pass under it. The 
Canadian Pacific finally crossed the Dominion in 1885, 
two other transcontinental now touch the Pacific coast, 
and British Columbia's problems are provincial rather 
than federal. 



315 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Saskatchewan and Alberta emerged by degrees to 
the status of Provinces as their population warranted. 
They had been part of the vast Northwest Territory 
acquired from the Hudson's Bay Company, were gov- 
erned autocratically by it, and inhabited chiefly by red 
men and buffaloes. No one dreamed of their possible 
wealth nor foresaw the rush of home-makers before the 
century closed. Nor did they see the part they would 
play in the Dominion's economic development, nor 
anticipate that here would be sown seeds of radicalism 
which should profoundly influence the whole Domin- 
ion. This unfettered western sentiment has been aptly 
interpreted by Arthur Stringer in his poem, "Morning 
in the Northwest," in which he sings : 

"Here are no huddled cities old in sin. . . . 
What care I for all Earth's creeds outworn, 
The dreams outlived, the hopes to ashes turned 
In that old East so dark with rain and doubt? 
Here life swings glad and free and rude, and I 
Shall drink it to the full and go content." 

At first, from 1870 to 1876, the Territory was under 
the wing of the Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba. A 
Governor, assisted by a council, then administered 
affairs until 1887, when responsible government was 
established. The long-awaited railway had now 
arrived, and the foundations were being laid for an 
opulent future. The vigorous immigration policy of 
Clifford Sifton, Minister of the Interior in the Laurier 
Cabinet, spurred the rush to the prairies from Europe 
and the United States, and the sorrows of previous 
booms and their collapse were forgotten in the new 
prosperity. By 1905 autonomy could no longer be with- 

316 



ROUNDING OUT CONFEDERATION 

held, the Dominion Government yielded to the pressure 
of Premier F. W. G. Haultain* and his associates, and 
the new Provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta were 
set up. Earl Grey, then Governor-General, and Sir 
Wilfrid Laurier, Premier of Canada, journeyed to 
Edmonton and Regina for the imposing inauguration 
ceremonies in the new capitals, and completed Confed- 
eration in nine Provinces, from sea to sea. 

"When I look about me on this sea of upturned 
faces," said Sir Wilfrid Laurier to the historic gather- 
ing at Edmonton on September 1, 1905, "I see the deter- 
mination of the new Province. I see everywhere hope, 
I see calm resolution, courage, enthusiasm to face all 
difficulties, to settle all problems. If it be true every- 
where, it must be more true here in this new Province, 
in this bracing atmosphere of the prairie, that 'Hope 
springs eternal in the human breast.' " 

When David Laird, then an old man, addressed 
the inauguration gathering at Regina three days later, 
he said that on taking office in 1876 as first Governor 
of the Territories, he crossed five hundred miles of 
prairie and saw a few settlers at Battleford, but nothing 
elsewhere but Indians and the last of the buffalo. "The 
rich loam," as an early western paper had said, was 
"already impatient for the plowman's steel," and Mr. 
Laird lived to see the land gridironed with steel high- 
ways and millions of acres cultivated by eager home- 
steaders. 

*Sir Frederick William Gordon Haultain (1857- ) has been 
identified with the development of the West since 1887, when he became 
a member of the Northwest Council. He occupied various offices before 
becoming Premier in 1897, a post he held until the establishment of the 
new Provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, under the autonomy bills of 
1905. Shortly afterwards he became Chief Justice of Saskatchewan, 
which position he still holds. 

317 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

It is difficult, in view of the buoyancy and prosper- 
ity which have followed Confederation, to imagine the 
hesitation and doubt which marked the early history of 
the new Dominion. True, New Brunswick and Nova 
Scotia were far from happy partners for years after the 
union became effective, while Quebec had many mis- 
givings, despite the confidence of the Church in prefer- 
ring a British union, with the privileges the French- 
Canadians inherited under it, to the dangers of a repub- 
lican and secular alliance. But the union, begun as a 
bond on paper, has developed into a great Dominion, 
with vast visible wealth and with public works far 
beyond its present needs. For almost a generation pro- 
gress was slow and disappointing, while the neighbor- 
ing Republic leaped ahead and looked over its shoulder 
contemptuously at the lagging Dominion. Hundreds 
of thousands of Canada's best manhood sought home 
and opportunity across the border, while those who 
remained bore as best they could the failure of the 
young nation's hopes. All this time preparations were 
being made for the better days to come. 

"We went to work," Sir George E. Foster has 
said of this period, "building railways without having 
anything in traffic for them to carry; building canals 
and peopling them with argosies evolved from the 
imagination. The Intercolonial Railway, involving 
millions, was built before there was anything for it to 
carry; the Canadian Pacific Railway was launched 
upon its three thousand miles extension before there was 
a pound of freight or a passenger to be taken, practi- 
cally speaking. So, too, we were laying out the bounds 

318 



ROUNDING OUT CONFEDERATION 

of provinces which encompassed no population; we 
were surveying millions of acres of land without a 
settler upon them, or even a settler in sight. We were, 
in fact, doing underground work — exploration, blast- 
ing, tunnelling, laying concrete pipes without anything 
at that time to pass through them, and that kind of work 
consumed the power and made its long draft upon the 
hopes of one generation of Canadians before results 
began to show." 

Almost in an instant Canada's day dawned. Immi- 
gration which had passed her doors now entered each 
year by hundreds of thousands. Timorous capital 
sought here a fruitful outlet; optimism and ambition 
seized the people. The Maritime Provinces, the last 
to be touched by the magic of the expansion, felt the new 
life industrially, if not agriculturally; Quebec devel- 
oped her raw materials, Ontario became more indus- 
trialized, while the western Provinces could barely 
assimilate their new population and capital. The 
Dominion closed its first half century with wealth and 
hopes that justified the most sanguine views of its far- 
seeing Fathers. 



319 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Leading authorities consulted in the preparation of this 
book : — 

Sir John A. Macdonald: A Memoir, By Joseph Pope, 
Sir John A. Macdonald, By George R. Parkin. 
The Day of Sir John A, Macdonald, By Sir Joseph Pope. 
George Brown, By John Lewis. 

The Life and Speeches of Hon. George Brown, By Alexander 

Mackenzie. 
Sir Oliver Mowat: A Biographical Sketch, By C. R. W. Biggar, 

K.C. 
Sir George Etienne Cartier, Bart.: His Life and Times, By 

John Boyd. 
Sir Georges Cartier, By Alfred D. DeCelles. 
Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the Liberal Party, By J. S. Willison. 
The Hon. Thomas D'Arcy McGee, By Fennings Taylor. 
Speeches and Addresses by Hon. Thomas D'Arcy McGee. 
Sir Leonard Tilley, By James Hannay. 

The Life and Times of Sir Leonard Tilley, By James Hannay. 
History of New Brunswick, By James Hannay. 
The Life and Letters of Rt Hon. Sir Charles Tupper, Edited by 

E. M. Saunders, D.D. 
Recollections of Sixty Years, By Sir Charles Tupper, Bart 
Three Premiers of Nova Scotia, By Edward Manning Saunders. 
Sir Charles Tupper, By J. W. Longley. 
Speeches and Public Letters of Joseph Howe, Edited by J. A. 

Chisholm. 
Joseph Howe, By J. W. Longley. 

The Tribune of Nova Scotia, By William Lawson Grant. 
Life and Times of the Hon. Joseph Howe, By G. E. Fenety. 

321 

21 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 

Nova Scotia, By Duncan Campbell. 

History of Prince Edward Island, By Duncan Campbell. 

The Fathers of Confederation, By A. H. U. Colquhoun. 

The Union of the British Provinces, By Edward Whelan. 

Confederation of the British North American Provinces (Lon- 
don, 1865). 

Confederation, By John Hamilton Gray. 

Confederation Debates. 

The Last Forty Years: Canada since the Union of 1841, By John 
Charles Dent. 

The Canadian Portrait Gallery, By John Charles Dent. 

Portraits of British Americans, By Fennings Taylor. 

The Canadian Biographical Dictionary (1891). 

Canada and Its Provinces, Vols. 13, 14, 15, 19 and 21. 

The Makers of Canada Index. 

Public Men and Public Life in Canada, By Hon. James Young. 

Sixty Years in Upper Canada, By Charles Clarke. 

Constitutional Documents of Canada, Edited by William Houston. 

Confederation Documents, Edited by Joseph Pope. 

Sandford Fleming: Empire Builder, By Lawrence J. Burpee. 

The Life of Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, By Beckles 
Willson. 

Sixty Years of Protection in Canada, By Edward Porritt. 

Canada: An Encyclopedia, By J. CasteU Hopkins. 

Getting into Parliament and After, By Sir George W. Ross. 

Baldwin and Lafontaine, By Stephen Leacock. 

Lord Elgin, By Sir John Bourinot. 

Canadian Constitutional Development, By H. E. Egerton and W. 
L. Grant. 

Treaties of Canada with Indians, By Hon. Alexander Morris. 

Parliamentary Debates and Journals. 

Files of The Globe (Toronto), The Leader (Toronto), The Week 
(Toronto), The News (Toronto), The Mail (Toronto).- 

322 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Alberta receives autonomy, 316. 

Allan, Sir Hugh, and Pacific 
Scandal, 37, 38, 129. 

Annand, William, opposes Con- 
federation, 253, 2SS, 275, 278; 
breaks with Howe, 280, 289, 
293; last anti-union leader in 
Nova Scotia, 285 ; birth and early 
life, 287; association with Howe, 
287; battle for responsible gov- 
ernment, 287; fight against Con- 
federation, 288-93; repeal cam- 
paign in England, 1868, 289-93; 
arguments against union, 291-2; 
death in England, 1887, 294. 

Annexation manifesto, 1849, 21, 
134. 

Archibald, Sir Adams G., a Father 
of Confederation, xi ; joins 
unionists in Nova Scotia, 288; 
Governor of Manitoba, 1871, 
314. 

6 

Bau)win, RoBiSRT, and responsible 

government, 8, 117. 
Blake, Edward, Premier of 

Ontario, 76, 107; critic of J. S. 

Macdonald Government, 99 

wants surplus distributed, 107 

and Pacific Scandal, 175 

opposes C.P.R., 260. 
Borden, Sir Robert, tribute to 

Tupper, 256. 
Bowell, Sir Mackenzie, Premier of 

Canada, 245. 



Bright, John, espouses Nova 
Scotia's ease in Imperial Parlia- 
ment, 292. 

British Columbia, joins Confeder- 
ation, 1871, 36, 314. 

British North America Act, 1867, 
provisions of, 10; passed as 
drafted by Canadian delegates, 
126-7. 

Brown, George, a Father of Con- 
federation, xi; campaigns for 
representation by population, 8, 
120, 139; special committee on 
constitutional . changes, 1864, 
22-3, 45, 53 ; joins coalition gov- 
ernment, 24, 54; leaves coalition 
government, 1865, 36, 60; char- 
acter and work in Upper Can- 
ada, 45; rival of J. A. Mac- 
donald, 46; tribute from Mac- 
donald, 47; early campaigfning, 
48; birth and early life, 49-50; 
fight for responsible govern- 
ment, 50; enters Parliament, 
1851, 51 ; speech at Reform con- 
vention, 1859, 52; at Charlotte- 
town and Quebec conference, 24, 
56; speech at Halifax, 1864, 57; 
speech in Confederation debate, 
57-60; interest in Northwest ter- 
ritory, 62 ; defeat in 1867, 63 ; 
appointed to Senate, 1873, 63; 
death, 64; relations with A. A. 
Dorion, 165-6. 
Buchanan, Isaac, and higher tariff, 

136. 
Buckingham, Duke of, reply to 
Nova Scotia's protest, 289. 

325 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 



Campbeli,, Sir Alexander, a 
Father of Confederation, xi. 

Canadian Pacific Ry., promoted by 
Sir Charles Tupper, 243, 259. 

Carnarvon, Earl of, 174, 291. 

Carter, F. B. T., a Father of Con- 
federation, xii. 

Cartier, Sir George E., a Father 
of Confederation, xi ; ancestry 
and birth, 113-6; contrast with 
Laurier, 114; joins with Brown, 
114; convert to Confederation, 
1858, 115; mission to England, 
115; takes part in rebellion of 
1837, 116-7; enters Parliament, 
1848, 118; Provincial Secretary, 
1855, 118; joint leader with J. A. 
Macdonald, 118; codifies civil 
laws, 118; promotes Grand 
Trunk Railway, 119; fight for 
Confederation, 120-27, 173; Min- 
ister of Militia, 1867, 127; mis- 
sion to England re Hudson's 
Bay Co., 128; defeat, 1872, 128; 
death in London, 1873, 129; 
character, 129-30; contrast with 
Dorion, 165; visits Nova Scotia, 
1868, 280. 

Cartwright, Sir Richard, Memories 
of Confederation, 56; on 
Cartier's services, 122; Finance 
Minister, 259; opposes C.P.R., 
260. 

Cauchon, J. E., 186. 

Cayley, William, Inspector-Gen- 
eral, 135. 

Champlain, founder of Quebec, 6. 

Chandler, E. B., a Father of Con- 
federation, xii, 235, 274. 

Chapais, J. C, a Father of Confed- 
eration, xi. 

326 



Charlottetown Conference. 1864, 
called by Dr. Charles Tupper, 9, 
250; Canadian delegates attend, 
24; delegates to, 24. 

Chauveau, P. J. O., Premier of 
Quebec, 1867, 174. 187. 

Civil War in United States, 52, 251. 

"Clear Grits," 84, 167, 168. 

Clergy in Lower Canada, support 
Confederation, 124-5. 127. 

Cockburn, James, a Father of Con- 
federation, xi. 

Coles, George, ,a Father of Con- 
federation, xii. 

Confederation debate, Quebec, 
1865, 31 ; vote following, 34. 

Constitutional Act, 1791, 7. 



D 



David, L. O., opposes Confedera- 
tion, 126, 173. 

Debate at Truro, Howe and Tup- 
per, 1867, 253-4. 

Decimal currency in Canada, 1858, 
137. 

D'Estaing, Count, his overtures to 
French-Canadians, 1775, 115. 

Dickey, R. B., a Father of Con- 
federation, xi. 

Dorchester, Lord, fathers Quebec 
Act, 1774, 7; Constitutional Act, 
1791, 8; calls first Parliament of 
Canada, 1792, 28. 

Dorion , Sir Antoine A., joins 
the Brown-Dorion Government, 
1858, 50. 168; joins Macdonald- 
Dorion Government. 1863, 103, 
169; opposes Confederation, 
125 ; his character and work, 
165-6; birth and early life, 166-7; 
enters Parliament, 1854, 166-7; 



INDEX 



leader of Rouges, 167; early 
views on federation, 169; mani- 
festo against Confederation, 
170; speech in Confederation 
debate, 171-3; campaign in 
Lower Canada against Confed- 
eration, 173-4; Minister of 
Justice, 1873, 175; Chief 
Justice of Quebec, 175; death in 
1891, 175; Wilfrid Laurier on, 
176. 

"Double Shuffle," The, 1858, 52, 
168. 

Dufiferin, Lord, interview with 
Tupper, 257-8; visit to Prince 
Edward Island, 1873, 297; visit 
to British Columbia, 1876, 315. 

Dundas, George, Governor of 
P.E.L, 1864, 24. 

Dunkin Act, 1864, 187. 

Dunkin, Christopher, opposes Con- 
federation, 125; character and 
work, 179-80; birth and early 
life, 180; enters Parliament, 
1847, 180 ; argument on seignior- 
ial tenure, 1853, 181 ; speech in 
Confederation debate, 181-6 ; 
accepts Confederation, 1866, 
186; Minister of Agriculture, 
187; the Dunkin Act, 187-8; ser- 
vice on Bench, and death, 188. 

Durham, Lord, 8, 180, 249. 



Eastern Townships, settlement 
of, 134. 

Elgin, Lord, insulted by Mon- 
treal mob, 1849, 21. 



Falkland, Lord, 272. 

Fenians, and McGee, 157, 159-60; 

attack on New Brunswick 

border, 233. 
Ferrier, Senator James, Gait's 

letter to, 146. 
Fisher, Charles, a Father of 

Confederation, xii, 203, 204, 

217, 235. 
Fisheries, Canada's rights in, 

219-21; award at Halifax, 221, 

236. 
Fleming, Sir Sandford, engineer 

of Intercolonial Railway, 157, 

250. 
Foster, Sir George, on Canada's 

foundations, 318. 



Galt, Sir Alexander T., a 
Father of Confederation, xi; 
advocates federation, 1858, 9, 
115, 137-9; speaks at Charlotte- 
town Conference, 25, 141 ; mis- 
sion to England, 1859, 115, 140; 
his public services, 133-4; birth 
and early life, 134-5; enters Par- 
liament, 1849, 134; enters Cabi- 
net, 140; increases tariff, 135-7; 
speech at Sherbrooke, 1864, 142; 
speech in Confederation debate, 
143-4; resigns as Finance Min- 
ister, 1866, 144; at London Con- 
ference, 1866, 145; opposes Sir 
John Macdonald, 146; at Fish- 
eries Commission, Halifax, 146; 
High Commissioner in London, 
1880, 146; death, 1893. 147. 

Gait, John, 134. 

327 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 



Garvie, William, 276. 

Globe. The, (Toronto) 8, founded 
by George Brown, 1844, 50; 
attacks J. S. Macdonald, 102. 

Gordon, Arthur H. Governor of 
New Brunswick, 198; letter to 
A. J. Smith, 1866, 199 ; relations 
with Peter Mitchell, 217; rela- 
tions with A. J. Smith, 231-3. 

Grand Trunk Railway, Cartier's 
promotion of, 119; Gait's con- 
nection with, 135; influence for 
Confederation, 276. 

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, 119. 

Gray, Col. John Hamilton, (Prince 
Edward Island) a Father of 
Confederation, xii ; Chairman of 
the Charlottetown Conference, 
25. 

Gray, John Hamilton, (New 
Brunswick), a Father of Con- 
federation, xii. 

Grey, Earl, at Edmonton and Re- 
gina, 1905, 317. 



H 



Haliburton, Thomas Chandler, 

272. 
Halifax, Cartier's speech at, 122-3. 
Hardy, A. S., 258. 
Haultain, Sir Frederick, 317. 
Haviland, T. Heath, a Father of 

Confederation, xii; 299, 300. 
Haythorne, R. P., Premier of 

Prince Edward Island, 301, 302. 
Head, Sir Edmund, and tariff of 

1859. 136; and Brown-Dorion 

Cabinet, 168; favors federation, 

1853, 194. 
Henry, William A., a Father of 

Confederation, xi. 

328 



Hincks, Sir Francis, 274. 
Hincks-Morin Government, op- 
posed by George Brown, 50; re- 
signation of, 1854, 101. 
Holton, L. H., Brown's letter to, 
63; opposes Confederation, 125, 
166, 174. 
Howe, Joseph, early advocacy of 
federation, 169, 266; visits 
Northwest, 91, 281; rivalry with 
Tupper, 243, 246, 267; joint de- 
bate with Tupper at Truro, 
253-4; joins Dominion Cabinet, 
1869, 256 ; character and achieve- 
ments, 265; record of construc- 
tive work, 265-6; birth and early 
life, 267-9; speech at Detroit 
convention, 269-70; favors Im- 
perialism, 270-2; fight for re- 
sponsible government, 271-2 ; 
fight against Confederation, 
274-80; campaign in London, 
1866-7, 275-6; member of House 
of Commons, 1868, 277; repeal 
campaign in London, 1868, 
278-80, 292; accepts "better 
terms," 280 ; Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor of Nova Scotia, 281 ; death, 
1873, 281. 
Howland, Sir W. P., 46, 61. 
Hudson's Bay Company, rights 
secured from, 36, 90, 128, 313; 
their territory, 138. 
Huntington, L. S., makes Pacific 
Scandal charges, 1873, 37; op- 
poses Confederation, 125, 174. 



Indian Treaties, 306-9. 
Intercolonial Railway, 11, 169, 174, 
185, 195, 218, 236, 252, 274. 



INDEX 



Jette, <Sir) Louis A., opposes 
Confederation, 126 ; defeats 
Cartier, 1872, 128. 

Johnson, J. M., a Father of Con- 
federation, xii. 

Johnstone, J, W., advocates fed- 
eration, 1854, 9; Premier of 
Nova Scotia, 248, 249, 270. 

Joly, Henri Gustave, opposes Con- 
federation, 125. 

Jones, A. G., opposes Confedera- 
tion, 288. 

K 

KfiMNY, Edwakd, 255. 
"iCingdom of Canada," 10. 



Lafontaine, L. H., and respon- 
sible government, 8, 167; on un- 
rest of 1837, 116. 

Laird, David, speech on Pacific 
Scandal, 39, 304; birth and early 
life, 298; opposes Confederation, 
3(K)-2; negotiations for union, 
1873, 303 ; Minister of the Inter- 
ior, 1873, 305; Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor Northwest Territories, 
1876, 306; negotiates Indian 
treaties, 306-9; death, 1914, 309; 
character, 309; speech at Re- 
gina, 1905, 317. 

Lanctpt, Mederic, opposes Con- 
federation, 173. 

Langevin, Sir Hector L., a Father 
of Confederation, xi; 186. 

Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, on Sir John 
Maedonald 41; on Sir Oliver 



Mowat, 80; contrast with Sir 
George Cartier, 114; opposes 
Confederation, 1865, 173; on 
Sir A. A. Dorion, 175; on Sir 
Charles Tupper, 244; speech at 
Edmonton, 1905, 317. 
Loyalists United Empire, settle in 
British America, 6-7, 201. 



M 



Macdonald, a. a., a Father of 
Confederation, xii. 

Maedonald, Sir John A., a Father 
of Confederation, xi; qualities 
of leadership, 17; personal qual- 
ities, 18; compared with con- 
temporaries, 19; birth and early 
life, 19-20; enters public life, 20; 
long contest with Brown, 21 ; 
coalition with Reformers, 1864, 
24; at Charlottetown Confer- 
ence, 24; speech at Halifax, 
1864, 26; work at Quebec Con- 
ference, 28; favors strong cen- 
tral government, 30; speech in 
Confederation debate, 32-4; at 
London Conference, 35; concil- 
iates Howe and Nova Scotia, 
35, 255-6, 280; breaks with 
Brown, 36; Pacific Scandal 
charges and defeat of Govern- 
ment, 1873, 37-9; returned to 
power on National Policy, 1878, 
39; last campaign, 40; illness 
and death, 1891, 40-1, 175 ; char- 
acter and work, 41 ; on D'Arcy 
McGee, 161 ; relations with Peter 
Mitchell, 221-2; relations with 
Sir Charles Tupper, 244-5, 
256-7; successor to, 1891, 261; 
negotiations with British Colum- 
bia, 1871, 315. 

329 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 



Macdonald, John Sandfield, op- 
poses Confederation, 97 ; rela- 
tions with Brown, 98; relations 
with Sir John Macdonald, 98-9; 
birth and early life, 100; enters 
parliament, 1841, 100-1 ; Premier 
of Canada, 1862, 102; speech in 
Confederation debate, 103-5 ; 
Premier of Ontario, 1867, 105; 
radical program, 106; defeat, re- 
tirement and death, 106-8. 

Mackenzie, Alexander, Premier of 
Canada, 1873-8, 39, 305; leaves 
Ontario Legislature, 1872, 11; 
critic of Sandfield Macdonald 
Government, 99. 

Mackenzie, William Lyon, 7; de- 
feats Brown in Haldimand, 51. 

Manitoba joins Confederation, 
1870, 36. 

Manners-Sutton, H. T., 204. 

McCully, Jonathan, a Father of 
Confederation, xi; 288. 

McDonald, Hugh, opposes Con- 
federation, 275. 

McDougall, William, a Father of 
Confederation, xi; read out of 
Reform party, 1867, 61, 87 ; char- 
acter and achievements, 83-4; 
"Clear Grit" platform, 84-5; 
birth and early life, 85-6; enters 
Parliament, 1858, 86; at Char- 
lottetown Conference, 24; joint 
secretary at Quebec Conference, 
86; in coalition Cabinet, 1864, 
86; moves resolution to acquire 
Northwest, 89; commissioner on 
same, 90; appointed Governor 
of new territory, 90; driven out 
by half-breeds, 91 ; last years 
and death, 92-4; mission to 
England with Cartier, 1868, 128 ; 
controversy with Howe, 281. 



McGee, Thomas D'Arcy, a Father 
of Confederation, xi; work at 
Quebec Conference, 75 ; services 
for Confederation, 151-3; birth 
and early life, 155-6; flight from 
Ireland, 1848, 155; settles in 
Canada, 1857, 156; enters Par- 
liament and Cabinet, 156; speech 
in Confederation debate, 158; 
Wexford speech, 159; deserted 
by Irish, 160 ; last speech in Par- 
liament, 160; assassination, 161; 
relinquishes claim on office, 1867, 
255. 

Meredith, (Sir) William R., Oppo- 
sition leader in Ontario, 67, 79. 

Metcalfe, Lord, contest with Re- 
formers, 50, 101. 

Miller, William, favors Confeder- 
ation, 253. 

Mitchell, Peter, a Father of Con- 
federation, xii ; leader of New 
Brunswick Legislative Council, 
199, 214; Premier of N.B.. 200, 
233 ; character and achievements, 
213-4; birth and early life, 213; 
early advocate of union, 215 ; 
fight for union in N.B., 216-8; 
Minister of Marine and Fish- 
eries, 219-20; fight for Canadian 
autonomy, 220; differences with 
Macdonald, 221-2; later years 
and death, 223; at London Con- 
ference, 235. 

Moffat, George, 266. 

Monck, Lord, urges Confedera- 
tion, 34; letter to George Brown, 
55. 

Monk, F. D., speech on Lafon- 
taine, 117 

Morris, Alexander, 23, 307. 

Morrison, Joseph Curran, defeated 
by Oliver Mowat, 1857, 71. 



330 



INDEX 



Mowat. Sir Oliver, a Father of 
Confederation, xi ; work at Que- 
bec Conference, 30, 74; character 
and appearance, 67; rivalry with 
Sir John Macdonald, 67-8; vic- 
tories for Provincial rights, 68; 
birth and early life, 69-70 ; enters 
public life 71 ; speech at Reform 
convention, 1859, IZ; Post- 
master-General, 74; Vice-Chan- 
cellor, 1864, 76; Premier of 
Ontario, 1872-96, 76-9; Minister 
of Justice and Lieutenant- Gov- 
ernor, 79; death, 1903, 80. 

Musgrave, Sir Anthony, 315. 



N 



National Policy, advocated by 
Tupper, 1876, 39, 256; introduced 
by Tilley, 1879, 207-9. 

Nelson. Dr. Wolfred, 117. 

New Brunswick, defeats Confed- 
eration, 1865, 34, 197, 216; de- 
velopment of, 201-2; adopts 
Confeder.ition 201. 

New Brunswick Railway League, 
1850 202. 

Newcastle, Duke of, 137. 

Newfoundland, abandons Quebec 
scheme, 1865, 34. 

Northwest Territory, 62-3, 88-90, 
249, 260, 313. 

Nova Scotia, opposes Confedera- 
tion, 1865, 34. 



Pacific Scandal, 37, 129, 221-2, 

244, 257, 304. 
Palmer, Edward, a Father of 

Confederation, xii. 
Papineau, L J.; and rebellion of 

1837, 7, 116-7; and Parti Rouge, 

166. 
Parliament Buildings, Montreal, 

burned, 1849, 21, 118, 134. 
Farti Rouge, 166-7; opposes Con- 
federation, 173. 
"Patent Combination," The, 99. 
Pope, J. C, 298, 301, 303. 
Pope, J. H.. 259. 
Pope, William H., a Father of 

Confederation, xii. 
Power, Senator L. G., on Nova 

Scotia and Union, 285. 
Prince Edward Island, defers 

Confederation, 1865, 34, 301; 

enters Confederation, 1873, 303; 

railway question in, 302-3. 



Q 



Quebec Act, 1774, 6. 

Quebec Conference, 1864, adopts 

72 resolutions, 10; setting of, 

27-8. 
Quebec, Province of, confirms 

Confederation, 1867, 127. 



R 



O 



O'CoNNELL, Daniel, and McGee, 
154 



Rebellion of 1837, 7, 116-7, 166. 
Reciprocity Treaty, 10, 53, 60, 

251 ; convention at Detroit, 1865, 

269. 
Red River Colony. 313. 

331 



CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 



Responsible Government, granted 
in Canada, 50; in New Bruns- 
wick, 203; in Nova Scotia, 271. 

Riel, Louis, rebellion of, 1869-70, 
90, 306, 313; gives seat to 
Cartier, 1872, 129. 

Ritchie, W. J., 235. 

Rose, Sir John, Minister of Fin- 
ance, 145, Macdonald's letter to, 
146; visits Nova Scotia, 1868, 
280 

Rosebery, Lord, on Sir John Mac- 
donald. 41. 

Ross, John, mission to England, 
1859, 115. 

Ross, Sir George W., on Mowat, 
78; on McGee, 153. 



Saskatchewan receives auton- 
omy, 316. 

Seigniorial Tenure abolished, 1854, 
21. 

Selkirk, Lord, 313. 

Shea, Ambrose, a Father of Con- 
federation, xii. 

Sicotte, L. v., 169. 

Sifton, (Sir) Clifford, immigra- 
tion policy of, 316. 

Smith, Sir Albert J., Premier of 
New Brunswick, 1865. 198, 227; 
fight against Confederation, 227- 
35; relations with Governor 
Gordon, 230-3; defends respon- 
sible government, 233; birth and 
early life, 225-6; Minister of 
Marine and Fisheries, 236; de- 
feat and death, 236-7; character 
and work, 237. 

Smith, Donald A., (Lord Strath- 
cona), speech on Pacific Scan- 
dal, 39, 222, 305; peace maker 

332 



in Northwest, 1870, 92; member 
of N.W. Council, 313. 

Smith, Chief Justice William, ad- 
vocates federation of British 
colonies, 1791, 8. 

Stairs, William J., 275, 288. 

Steeves, William H., a Father of 
Confederation, xii. 



Tache, Sir E. P., a Father of 
Confederation, xi; retires from 
Premiership of Canada, 1857, 
21 ; presides at Quebec Confer- 
ence, 28, 123; moves Confeder- 
ation resolutions in Legislative 
Council, 32. 

Tilley, Sir Samuel Leonard, a 
Father of Confederation, xii; 
seconds main resolution at Que- 
bec Conference, 29; battle in 
New Brunswick for Confedera- 
tion, 195-201 ; views on railway 
at Quebec Conference, 195 ; de- 
feat in N.B., 1865, 197; friend- 
ship with Macdonald, 200; birth 
and early life, 202; his prohibi- 
tion act, 203-4; aids in conciliat- 
ing Nova Scotia, 1868, 205; 
Lieutenant-Governor of New 
Brunswick, 1873, 206; Finance 
Minister, 1878, 206; introduces 
National Policy, 1879, 206-8; 
again Lieut.-Govemor, 1885, 
209; death, 209; contrasted with 
Peter Mitchell, 213; relations 
with Mitchell, 217-9. 

Tupper, C. H., 261. 

Tupper, Sir Charles, a Father of 
Confederation, xi ; advocates 
National Policy, 39, 256; aid^ 



INDEX 



Cartier to secure title, 127; 
lectures on union at St John, 
1860, 9, 194, 249; character and 
work, 243-4 ; service to his party, 
244-6; enters public life, 1852, 
246; birth and early life, 247-9; 
compulsory education bill, 249; 
initiates Charlottetown Confer- 
ence, 249-51; speech at Quebec, 
252; Confederation fight in 
Nova Scotia, 253-6; battle with 
Howe, 254-6^ in House of Com- 
mons, 1867, 256; enters Cabinet, 
257; interviews Lord Dufferin, 
257; defeat and temporary re- 
tirement, 1873-8, 258; financial 
critic, 259; promotes Canadian 
Pacific Railway, 259-60; High 
Commissioner to England, 260 
Premier of Canada, 1896, 261 
death in England, 1915, 261 
confronts Howe in England, 
1868, 278; secures (Howe's 
appointment as Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor, 281. 



U 

Uniackb, J. B., 271. 
Union of 1841, 8. 



VEBCHKUSS, MADELmiNB DB, 115. 

w 

War of 1812, 7. 

Washingfton, George, overtures to 

French-Canadians, 1775, 115, 124. 
Whalen, Edward, a Father oi 

Confederation, xii; 299. 
Whalen, Thomas, hanged for 

murder of McGee, 161. 
Whitney, Sir James, 104, 107. 
Willison, J. S., on Dorion, 176. 
Wilmot, L. A., 203. 
Wilmot, R. D., 201, 235. 
Wolseley, Col. Garnet, 314. 
Wood, E. B., 107, 



333 



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